The Boston Red Sox Monday, May 24, 2021 * The Boston Globe Red Sox win streak snapped as Eduardo Rodriguez has another tough outing Julian McWilliams Eduardo Rodriguez’s struggles continued Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. Prior to their series finale against the Phillies, manager Alex Cora said it would be important that his starter gave the Red Sox at least six innings after the bullpen had to cover 3⅔ innings in Saturday night’s win. But Rodriguez lasted just four, failing to record an out in the fifth inning of an eventual 6-2 loss. Rodriguez sputtered in the first frame, tossing 34 pitches and yielding all four of the runs charged to him. It included a two-out, three-run homer by Brad Miller. “I felt bad because with two outs, you need to keep being aggressive and get the out,” Rodriguez said. “I feel like I was a little out of control with most of my pitches. So, I’m just going to keep on working on it and get back to the next game.” Rodriguez struck out two in the second and three in the fourth, holding the Phillies scoreless. Cora tried to get a fifth frame out of Rodriguez, but after an Odubel Herrera double and a walk to Jean Segura, with Rodriguez north of 100 pitches, Cora went to his bullpen. Rodriguez has lost his last three, allowing a combined 13 runs. The Blue Jays put 19 balls in play against Rodriguez in his last outing prior to Sunday, 11 of them hits. “Obviously, we don’t like the results,” Cora said, “but I like the fact that in those those two innings [Sunday], he was very aggressive. He was very sharp. Even Christian [Vázquez] told me that the stuff was a lot better in those two innings. So we’ll build stuff from there, and he’ll be ready for the next one.” Both Boston runs came on long balls. Franchy Cordero hit the second-longest Red Sox home run since 2015, a 474-foot blast only behind Jackie Bradley Jr.’s 478-footer at Colorado on Aug. 27, 2019. It was Cordero’s first since being acquired from Kansas City in February. Rafael Devers led off the ninth with his team-leading 13th homer of the season. The Red Sox (29-19) dropped into a first-place tie with Tampa Bay, which won its 10th in a row on Sunday, atop the American League East. They had led the division by themselves since winning on April 10. Moving forward, the Red Sox know they have work ahead of them. Each of their next seven series are against teams that made the 2020 playoffs, beginning with Atlanta on Tuesday. They’ll face the Astros for seven games across two series, and the Yankees (28-19), who have won their last six and are a half-game behind. The Red Sox will have Garrett Richards on the mound Tuesday. Richards has been on a roll as of late, with just two runs allowed in his last two starts (12⅔ innings) and a 3.72 ERA for the year. “It’s been a grind,” Cora said. “We’ve been saying it all along, we have a good team. We have a good baseball team and we know that it’s going to be a challenge in the upcoming days. “Now we have Atlanta, a playoff team. We have the Marlins, a playoff team. We have the Astros, a playoff team. And then we’ll go to New York, another playoff team. So that’s just the nature of our schedule and who we are playing. When you play in the AL East, it’s not easy.” Triston Casas, Jarren Duran add Red Sox flavor to Olympic qualifying roster Julian McWilliams Red Sox top prospects Triston Casas and Jarren Duran were named to Team USA’s Olympic qualifying training camp roster. Duran, 24, emerged as one of the Sox’ most dynamic and best prospects last spring, and left an impression at the team’s alternate training site. The outfielder is fresh off arguably his best performance as a professional, going 5 for 5 with two singles, a double, and two homers in Triple-A Worcester’s 7-4 win against Buffalo on Saturday. After an 0-for-5 Sunday, Duran is hitting .278/.366/.625 in 18 games with seven homers, which is tied for the most home runs in Triple A East. Casas, 21, clocked his fourth homer of the season in his 17th game with Double-A Portland on Sunday, and is hitting .328/.400/.552 after going 2 for 5 in a 7-2 win against New Hampshire. The first baseman carries an advanced approach at the plate, proving himself to be one of the better hitters within the Sox’ organization. “Obviously to play for your country is an honor,” manager Alex Cora said after his team’s 6-2 loss to the Phillies on Sunday. “It’s a great opportunity for them to learn from some guys that were very successful at this level.” Casas and Duran will have major league experience around them. Former All-Stars on the roster include outfielder Matt Kemp, infielder Todd Frazier, catcher Matt Wieters, and pitcher Edwin Jackson, with two- decade Angels boss Mike Scioscia the manager. “Mike Scioscia. What an honor. He’s going to help them to get better,” Cora said. Casas and Duran staying healthy is a concern, but this opportunity doesn’t come around often. “Playing for your country is a really special opportunity and we wouldn’t take that away from a player without good reason,” chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said. “And it can be a great developmental opportunity, too. We wouldn’t grant permission unless we felt good about the care they’ll get and how they’ll be handled.” The 28-man Olympic roster will be reduced to 26 on May 30, the day before the start of the WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier in Florida. The winner of the eight-team event, which also includes the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Canada, Cuba, Colombia, and Venezuela, earns the fifth of the six spots in the Olympic Games, with the second- and third-place finishers advancing to a last-chance qualifier next month. Darren Fenster, the Red Sox minor league outfield and baserunning coach, will serve as Team USA’s third base coach. “I’m very proud of him,” Cora said. “The work he has put in the last few years with the organization is paying off. He’s very respected.” Also on the roster is catcher Tim Federowicz, a 2008 Red Sox draft pick dealt away in 2011 and who last played in the majors in 2019. ‘It’s teamwork’ The Red Sox noticed too many slow rollers were resulting in hits, so before the May series against the Orioles, the coaching staff — led by Carlos Febles and Ramón Vázquez — got together with the analytics department. The numbers were eye-popping. “We were turning those ground balls into outs only 65 percent of the time,” Cora said. The Red Sox have since adjusted their defense by bringing fielders in with certain batters at the plate. According to Cora, they’d converted 82 percent (prior to Sunday) of those slow rollers since into outs. “We can talk about defense, defensive runs saved, analytic departments or information departments. It’s teamwork,” Cora said. “And since we made that adjustment, you can see the results.” Chris Sale progressing Chris Sale is throwing off a mound, according to Cora and pitching coach Dave Bush. While it’s just a small number of throws, Sale is excited to be at this point of his progression. “He’s building up strength and building up intensity,” Bush said. “He feels really good about it. I think this is a really important step for him to be able to get on the mound. He said he feels like a pitcher again, and that’s a really big step and he feels like he’s getting close. He’s going to be part of the team sometime soon” . Alex Verdugo (left hamstring tightness) was off for most of Sunday’s contest, but the outfielder did pinch-hit in the ninth. The team wanted to take advantage of Monday’s off-day, which will give Verdugo essentially three days of rest heading into Tuesday’s series at Fenway against Atlanta. Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez also got Sunday off . Christian Arroyo (left hand contusion) participated in his third rehab game for the WooSox, going 1-for-5 playing second base. There’s a strong possibility he could be back with the big-league club on Tuesday . Franchy Cordero’s 474-foot blast in the eighth inning left his bat at 118.6 miles per hour, and was just his third big-league home run since the end of the 2018 season. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to crush the ball like that,” said Cordero, noting that he’s hit a ball that far before. “It feels great to be able to make contact on a pitch like that. But obviously whenever you hit a ball like that, you kind of don’t even feel that bat anymore.” Alex Cora content to play the long game, same as he did in 2018 Peter Abraham PHILADELPHIA — The Red Sox unveiled their lineup at 10:15 a.m. on Sunday. You knew then it was going to be a difficult day. Xander Bogaerts and J.D.