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The Boston Red Sox Thursday, August 13, 2020 * The Boston Globe Red Sox lose another to Rays Alex Speier Good teams take advantage of their extra opportunities. Bad teams provide them. On Wednesday night, the Red Sox and Rays held true to form as Tampa Bay jumped out to an 8-0 advantage and then held on for a 9-5 victory at Fenway. Three defensive mishaps in the first two innings charted the game’s course. In the top of the first inning, a hard grounder by Yandy Diaz clanged off the glove of first baseman Michael Chavis to put two on with one out. After a walk loaded the bases, Joey Wendle smashed a hard grounder to first, and this time the ball found Chavis’s glove — tailor made for a force at the plate or perhaps a double play. But the ball stuck in the webbing of the first baseman’s mitt, and so he could get just the out at first base as the first Rays run scored. It would not be the last. One inning later, Sox starter Zack Godley allowed a leadoff homer to Willy Adames as the Rays stretched their lead to 2-0. Godley would have escaped the inning without further harm, but right fielder Kevin Pillar lost a routine two-out fly ball in the twilight for an Austin Meadows single. One batter later, Brandon Lowe took advantage of the extended opportunity, crushing a ball deep into the right field grandstand for a two- run homer. What could have been a one-run game had mushroomed into a 4-0 advantage. “It’s just hard to say what’s going to happen from game to game,” said manager Ron Roenicke. “When things aren’t going well, you see some weird stuff happening … Things just aren’t going well. That’s all there is to it. Things aren’t going well, we’re not getting breaks, and weird things are happening.” Tampa Bay extended the lead to 8-0 by the fourth inning and appeared set to cruise to victory. Though the Red Sox rallied for five runs in the eighth — an uprising keyed by a J.D. Martinez grand slam and solid long relief from Ryan Weber — the deficit proved too much to overcome, a statement that feels like it might also ring true about the Red Sox’ 2020 season. The Sox are 6-12, the worst record in the American League and the second worst in the majors. Eighteen games into this misshapen season, the acrid stench of defeat is already familiar. Some takeaways: ▪ The Red Sox have lost three straight to Tampa Bay to open the series at Fenway, and in the process, they’ve dropped to 1-7 against the Rays and Yankees this season. Dating to 2019, the Sox are 13-33 (.283 winning percentage) against the two — the sort of head-to-head failure that makes it challenging to anticipate a return to contention in the division until there are far-reaching improvements. ▪ The mere fact that Godley — released by the Tigers in mid-July — started on three days’ rest following a sharp four-inning outing against the Blue Jays on Saturday speaks volumes about the startling lack of depth in the Red Sox rotation. Godley’s performance on Wednesday amplified the point. While the Red Sox defense did the righthander no favors in the first two innings, the Rays found him an easy mark, well aware of his shift in reliance from his two-seam fastball in past years to a cutter this year. The Rays smashed three homers off Godley, two on cutters, and amassed 10 hits and eight runs in three- plus innings. It was the ugliest line of the year for a Sox starting pitcher in a season that has offered impressive competition for that distinction. ▪ When Pillar led off the first inning for the Red Sox with the longest plate appearance — a 10-pitch confrontation with 2018 Cy Young winner Blake Snell that resulted in a single — it seemed like the Sox had a chance to build on a spark. Instead, Rafael Devers — in his first plate appearance after missing two games because of an ankle injury — grounded into a double play on the second pitch he saw, and Martinez followed with a two-pitch out. Snell never was challenged again, cruising through five scoreless innings in which he scattered four hits, didn’t walk a batter, and struck out six. Snell needed just 70 pitches to complete his night’s work. Even when the Sox lineup is at its best, Snell has proven capable of mastering it. Even so, the ease with which Tampa Bay’s pitchers have dissected Red Sox hitters has been startling. The Sox entered Wednesday having swung at 34.2 percent of pitches out of the strike zone, the highest chase rate in the majors, and a shortcoming easily exposed by a Tampa Bay staff that’s loaded with pitchers who have excellent breaking stuff. ▪ Down, 8-0, in the eighth, the Sox rallied for five runs against Rays reliever Aaron Slegers, who was in his third inning after being called up on Wednesday. Four straight singles plated one run before Martinez unloaded on a first-pitch slider for a grand slam, his second homer in three games. The glimmers of a return to form for Martinez could loom large for the Sox — whether in helping the team to escape its morass or potentially in elevating the slugger’s value before the Aug. 31 trade deadline. ▪ After Godley’s early exit, Weber — recalled from the alternate training site on Wednesday — delivered six sharp innings of relief, allowing one run (a ninth-inning homer) while walking none and striking out four. The Sox had planned to give Weber another start, but based on his success as a long reliever, Roenicke said the team would consider having him continue to work out of the bullpen. Either way, Weber and the Sox found the outing encouraging after the righthander’s struggles in three starts prior to his brief trip to Pawtucket. “I pitched decent in this role last year,” Weber said of long relief. “After tonight, it’s obviously worked better than the three starts I had, that’s for sure.” Kyle Hart to make major league debut Thursday for Red Sox Peter Abraham Kyle Hart was called into a meeting with Red Sox minor league director Ben Crockett, Triple A manager Billy McMillon, and two of the pitching coaches at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket earlier this week. They told the lefthander that Major League Baseball was fining him for not wearing his mask when he was supposed to. Hart, knowing such a thing could well happen, was worried for a second. Then he was told he could pay his fine at Fenway Park … because he was being called up to face the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon. Even in a pandemic, pranking a player on his way to the big leagues for the first time continues. Hart was quick to call his family and friends with the good news. In a normal season, they’d all be on their way to Fenway Park, but they will settle for watching on television instead. “It totally is a disappointment. But it’s something everybody is dealing with,” Hart said. “We all kind of have to lean on each other.” Ryan Hart decided to fly to Boston anyway. He plans to find a bar near Fenway and watch his brother pitch from there. “That’s just who he is,” Kyle Hart said. “I’d love to be able to wave at him.” Righthander Aaron Slegers, one of Hart’s college teammates, was called up by the Rays on Wednesday. He made his major league debut in 2017. Slegers was thrilled when he heard Hart was getting a chance. “I jumped up out of my chair and gave a little shout in my hotel room,” he said. “I made a point when pitchers were stretching out there on the field to walk out there and give him a little chest bump congratulations from the opposite foul line, a socially distant congratulations.” That Hart is starting a major league game in the first place is its own story. He had Tommy John surgery in 2014 while playing for the University of Indiana. The Red Sox liked Hart enough to select him in the 19th round of the draft in 2016, but they invested only a $5,000 signing bonus. “I wanted to give it a shot. I didn’t know how much I’d love it,” he said. Most college draft picks start out at Lowell in the New York-Penn League. Hart was sent to the Gulf Coast League Red Sox with the high school kids. But Hart posted a 3.13 earned run average in 77 games, 71 of them starts. At 27, he’ll make his debut. “None of this was handed to me. I earned every drop of it,” Hart said. “I’m going to continue to earn every drop of it.” Hart doesn’t throw hard but attacks hitters with a variety of pitches. He changes angles and speeds. In essence, he knows how to pitch. The Red Sox have been running what amounts to a tryout camp on the mound with an assortment of no- hopers getting opportunities. At least Hart is a product of the organization. As manager Ron Roenicke noted, it’s a good day for the people who worked with Hart along the way.