For all of their success this season, the Red Sox have consistently fallen short in two irritating respects. They almost never win on Fridays and they’ve dropped most of their series openers at Fenway Park.
If recent history is any indication, the Red Sox have the Royals right where they want them.
Boston lost Friday night’s series opener to the Kansas City Royals, who like the Red Sox have emerged as a surprise playoff contender after crashing to a 56-106 finish last season. The Royals were in control from the beginning and cruised to a 6-1 win thanks to a pair of home runs and another brilliant outing by All-Star left-hander Cole Ragans.
The Royals are now tied with the Red Sox for the third American League Wild Card spot, and Boston is now 4-12 on Fridays and 3-13 in series openers at Fenway Park through the first half.
Kansas City gained the upper hand almost immediately, loading the bases against Red Sox starter Cooper Criswell with three straight singles to open the game before catcher Salvador Perez broke the ice with a sacrifice fly. Criswell, who had been called up from Triple-A several hours before first pitch, managed to work his way out of that jam but consistently found himself in trouble throughout his outing afterwards.
The Royals scored three times in the second, including on RBI singles by Adam Frazier and Perez and on another sac fly by Vinnie Pasquantino, and tacked on two more solo home runs as the game went on. The first came on a 429-foot bomb by Bobby Witt Jr. in the fourth and the second came courtesy of MJ Melendez in the eighth off reliever Greg Weissert.
“First two innings a lot of contact, I felt like balls were finding holes, some were hit good and some were hit a little weaker but found the right spots at the right time,” Criswell said. “Settled in after that but the first two innings were a little weird.”
Despite the early trouble, Criswell managed to at least give the Red Sox good length. He went six innings, allowing five runs (only two earned) on eight hits, two walks and a hit by pitch. He struck out one and threw 104 pitches.
“I know the line looks bad but he gave us enough,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “With him we’ve got to be on point on defense, they’re going to put the ball in play and he did a good job later in the game using his sinker and cutter keeping them honest. He gave us six, that was good.”
Offensively the Red Sox switched things up against the left-hander Ragans after struggling with Oakland Athletics lefty JP Sears on Wednesday night, loading the lineup with righties while moving lefty killer Rob Refsnyder into the leadoff spot.
It didn’t work.
Ragans made easy work of the Red Sox lineup, allowing one run on four hits over seven strong innings while striking out seven. Boston’s only run against the 26-year-old came in the second, when Jamie Westbrook and Ceddanne Rafaela tagged the lefty for back-to-back doubles.
“He’s one of the best in the league,” Cora said of Ragans. “We saw him last year and I was very impressed, and this year he’s taken another step.”
Rafaela, who finished 2 for 3 with the RBI double, also singled off Royals reliever Chris Stratton to spark a rally in the bottom of the eighth, but after David Hamilton walked to put two men on Stratton struck out three straight batters to end the inning and Boston never threatened again.
Even still, Rafaela is now batting .252 with 52 RBI on the season, and in 45 games since May 20 he’s batting .307 with 17 extra-base hits.
Though the Red Sox haven’t done well to start most weekends, they’ve typically bounced back and finished strong. Boston will aim to even the series and move back into sole possession of the third Wild Card spot on Saturday, with Kutter Crawford (5-7, 3.24) set to face Kansas City ace Seth Lugo (11-3, 2.21).
Then the Red Sox will aim to finish the first half with a good showing on Sunday, a day they’ve dominated with a 14-1 record through the first 15 weeks.
Why has there been such a disparity between Fridays and Sundays? Cora has a theory.
“We’ve got a lot of guys going to chapel on Sunday,” Cora said. “The new guy, he’s really good, we love him.”
Would that suggest the Red Sox ought to consider having chapel on Friday nights too?
“We should,” Cora said with a laugh before walking off the podium.
