ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Xander Bogaerts said Saturday that the Red Sox “need to win” Sunday.
They didn’t live up to the task though, as the Rays swept Boston after beating them by a score of 3-2 Sunday night, on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.
Brandon Lowe put the Rays on the board first, as Lowe lifted a payoff delivery from into the right field seats to put Tampa Bay up 2-0 in the third. Hunter Renfroe would put the Sox on the board in the fourth, as he socked a line drive over the center field wall for a solo blast.
Renfroe 🚀 pic.twitter.com/DAbskNWOCv
— MLB (@MLB) August 2, 2021
The Rays added to their lead with an RBI single from Manuel Margot in the fifth, as Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta lasted just 4 2/3 despite allowing just three hits. Josh Taylor finished the fifth, before newly acquired Hansel Robles would toss a clean sixth in his first outing for Boston.
Alex Verdugo scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to make it 3-2.
Garrett Whitlock tossed a scoreless seventh and eighth for the Sox, and Boston would rally in the ninth with back-to-back two-out hits from Kike Hernandez and Rafael Devers. But Matt Wisler retired the slumping J.D. Martinez on a popout to end the ballgame.
(Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)