Red Sox squander opportunity to sweep the lowly White Sox in weekend series
The Red Sox lost to the last-place White Sox 7-2 on Sunday after a dreadful ninth inning.
Alex Cora had two arms warming in the bullpen in closer Kenley Jansen and right-handed reliever Zack Kelly, but the skipper opted to use Kelly for the ninth in a 2-2 tie game.
Kelly imploded, giving up five runs on five hits and one intentional walk while recording just one out in the frame. The 29-year-old allowed four singles and one double.
“Just unlucky and obviously didn’t make pitches when I needed to,” Kelly said to reporters following the game. “I’ve pitched worse than that and given up zero runs.”
Cora had pointed comments about Kelly following his performance on the mound in the loss on Sunday.
“Lack of execution, to be honest with you,” said Cora to reporters. “He’s had some good ones (outings), really good ones when he’s on, and then that happens. I think as far as like execution today, talking to (catcher Connor) Wong, talking to Bails (pitching coach Andrew Bailey), he wasn’t there. I think we tried to go cutter to somebody, and it was middle-middle. Some changeups in the zone. We’ve been talking about that. It’s not one good outing during the week. With that stuff, we expect more. We want him to be like a big dog in the bullpen. That’s the reason he pitched the ninth. Because stuff-wise, there’s not too many guys like him. But we’ve gotta be consistent. That’s the most important thing. And there’s a few things he needs to work on to accomplish that.”
Cora said that he wanted to use Jansen in a save situation had the Sox taken the lead in the eighth inning. Red Sox setup man Chris Martin was unavailable to pitch in the game due to being sick. Martin hasn’t appeared in a game for Boston since Sept. 3. The veteran reliever is expected to be available on Monday.
Richard Fitts impresses Major League debut
Red Sox rookie pitcher Richard Fitts made his Major League debut on Sunday and looked strong against the White Sox.
Fitts pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing just two runs, both unearned on six hits, while striking out two batters.
"It was pretty crazy," Fitts told reporters following the game. "I found yesterday that it was a possibility that I would start today. I immediately started calling everybody. ... I didn't feel like I had my best stuff out there. I think that's very encouraging to feel that way because I feel like if I do have my best stuff, I can compete with anybody. It was a lot of fun. Ultimately, I wanna do anything I can to help the team win."
Fitts described his debut as a “special day” and had about 20 people in the stands to cheer him on.
The right-handed hurler made a pair of key defensive plays in the game, impressing his skipper in the process. He started a 1-6-3 double play that ended the fourth inning and also picked off Luis Robert at second base in the first inning.
"There were two things that he did today that tell me he's gonna be a good big leaguer," Cora said. "The pickoff, Ramon (Vazquez) put it on. He was patient, waited and got the guy out at first. The ground ball, first and third one out. There's a lot of big-leaguers would panic in that situation. Catch it and run the guy out at third and don't turn the double play. He didn't hesitate, went to second and Trevor (Story) turned the double play. Those two plays tell me where he's at mentally. He knows what he needs to do to compete at this level. Stuff was really good.”
"I think they're huge," Fitts said. "The double play comes to mind. I'm out there trying to get an out."
The two unearned runs charged to Fitts came in the sixth inning with Boston leading 1-0. White Sox designated hitter Zach DeLoach reached on a two-base error by first baseman Triston Casas, who tried to fan a sharply hit ground ball in his direction.
“Hit the grass and then topped up,” Casas said. “I anticipated the next hop being just as high, and it just stayed down... I wasn’t able to get in front of it.”
The Red Sox lead the majors with 104 errors, which have led to 88 unearned runs.
Robert followed up with a single to send DeLoach to third, and then Andrew Benintendi tied the game with a groundout. Catcher Korey Lee added on with an RBI single off reliever Greg Weissert, who replaced Fitts on the mound.
The Red Sox have 19 games remaining and are still mathematically in the wild-card race. Boston is sitting four games behind the Twins for the final spot and will play the Orioles and Yankees over the next seven games.
