Sweep dreams: Red Sox cough up four-run lead and lose series
The Red Sox were in cruise control, giving ace Tanner Houck a 4-0 lead to work with, and then the wheels came off.
Boston lost 7-5 to the Diamondbacks, resulting in a three-game sweep at Fenway Park on Sunday afternoon.
With the loss, the Red Sox have fallen to 67-62 on the year and 29-34 at home.
Houck got himself into trouble in the outing, issuing four walks over six frames. The righty gave up six earned runs off seven hits while striking out two DBacks.
The Sox’ hurler allowed the first three hitters to reach in the fifth inning, including walking two, the No. 6 and No. 8 batters. Following an RBI single and sacrifice fly, the Snakes cut the lead in half before Eugenio Suarez' reign of terror at Fenway clubbed a three-run home run, making it 6-4.
Triston Casas homered over the bullpens in his first at-bat, following an 0-for-4 performance on Saturday, where he struck out four times. His blast traveled 420 feet and was his eighth of the season.
Red Sox All-Star third baseman hit his 200th career homer in the fourth inning, putting Boston up 4-0.
Devers’ 399-foot, 106.7-mph blast was the 200th of his career. It made him the 11th player in team history to record 200 dingers.
At 27 years and 306 days old, Devers is the youngest player to reach that mark for the franchise. Jim Rice was the previous youngest Red Sox hitter to do it, accomplishing it at 28 years and 62 days old, the team announced midgame.
Connor Wong smoked a wall-ball double and an extra-base hit for Masataka Yoshida had the Red Sox cooking against Snakes' starter Merrill Kelly. Unfortunately, the slow-footed Yoshida was thrown out in the fourth frame as he tried to stretch a double into a triple.
Suarez was the star of the series; he went 4-for-4, three RBIs, two runs Sunday. The Arizona third baseman provided the visitors with their first lead of the game on his three-run home run in the sixth inning. Suarez also hit a single during DBacks' three-run fifth inning and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by leadoff man Corbin Carroll.
The slugger finished the series 9-for-13 with 10 RBIs.
