The Red Sox had enjoyed two shutout victories in their previous three games, but the shoe was on the other foot until deep into Sunday’s 4-1 finale loss with the visiting Tampa Bay Rays.
Rookie left-hander Payton Tolle struggled early in his five-inning, 81-pitch start, but finished strong. He yielded three earned runs on seven hits, struck out four, and didn’t issue a walk.
The Rays took an immediate lead in the top of the first on Junior Caminero’s 11th home run of the season, a one-out blast to the back of the Green Monster seats. Tolle recovered and retired the next two hitters, and a relay from right-fielder Wilyer Abreu to substitute first baseman Andruw Monasterio to shortstop Trevor Story and back to Monasterio helped erase Ryan Vilade’s leadoff single in a 1-2-3 second inning.
Tampa tacked on a pair in the top of the third, helped by a costly error by Story, which allowed catcher Nick Fortes to score on left-fielder Chandler Simpson’s one-out single. Second baseman Ben Williamson’s two-out RBI single made it 3-0 before Tolle struck out Vilade to end the inning.
Tolle faced the minimum in his last two innings. Cedric Mullins led off the fourth with a single, but was picked off and caught stealing second on a rundown in which the ball was thrown from Tolle to Monasterio, to second baseman Marcelo Mayer, back to Tolle, and finally to Story for the tag.
Rays starter Nick Martinez shut out the Red Sox for 5 1/3 of his 5 2/3 innings (80 pitches, 55 for strikes). Boston scattered seven hits, drew no walks, struck out three times, and plated just one run against him.
Martinez racked up 10 swing-and-misses and induced a near-constant stream of weak contact for outs. The 20 batted-ball events during his start had an average exit velocity of 84.9 mph, and only seven qualified as hard-hit.
Story’s second strikeout in as many at-bats, and after his second-inning error, elicited boos from the lively, but far from sold-out crowd of 33,489. The veteran shortstop was booed again when he struck out looking to end the eighth. Through 38 games this season, Story is hitting .200 with a .520 OPS.
The Red Sox left at least one man on base in each of the first six innings. They couldn’t even advance a runner as far as third base until Jarren Duran singled with two outs in the fifth, and moved to the hot corner on Monasterio’s second hit of the day, a single. Both men were then stranded.
Sunday’s lineup standout was Mickey Gasper, who had gone 0 for 18 in his 2024 debut with the Red Sox. Back in the organization after a 2025 season in the Minnesota Twins organization, Gasper not only notched his first Red Sox hit, but finished 3 for 4 with two doubles and drove in the team’s only run.
Boston got on the board and knocked Martinez out of the game in the bottom of the sixth. Story lined a one-out double low off the Monster for his first extra-base hit since April 29. Gasper followed with a single, which drove in his first-ever Red Sox RBI.
Martinez retired Mayer, and left the rest up to the Rays bullpen. Right-hander Kevin Kelly pitched his team’s first clean inning in the bottom of the seventh. Left-hander Garrett Cleavinger struck out the side in the eighth, but the Red Sox made him work for it; pinch-hitting for Masataka Yoshida, catcher Carlos Narváez didn’t go down swinging until Cleavinger’s 11th pitch, an 86.5 mph slider, and Story’s third strikeout of the day came on the eighth pitch.
Gasper led off the bottom of the ninth with his second double, and Mayer followed with a walk. Each of the next three at-bats teased, but didn’t achieve. Ceddanne Rafaela lined a ball foul down the left-field line, then struck out swinging. Replay review showed Caleb Durbin was a split second away from beating the throw to first base, which would’ve loaded the diamond. And Jarren Duran’s fly ball soared high, but only 289 feet before it landed safely in Simpson’s glove.
The Red Sox tallied eight hits, eight strikeouts, and one walk in the contest. They were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base.
Challenging day
Both teams had mixed results with the ABS challenge system. In the bottom of the first, Willson Contreras successfully challenged Martinez’s second pitch, then was plunked for the AL-leading eighth time on the very next pitch, and was replaced by Monasterio in the top of the second. Behind the dish, Gasper successfully overturned a 2-1 ball during Williamson’s at-bat against Kelly in the top of the sixth.
Ceddanne Rafaela now owns a 2 for 7 ABS record this season. His challenge in the bottom of the sixth came on a pitch with an edge distance over three inches inside the zone.