Stick a fork in them. The Red Sox are officially cooked.
With no margin for error and time quickly running out, the Red Sox playoff hopes were all but extinguished Friday. Boston fell to the Minnesota Twins 4-2 in an interminable 12-inning slog, with both teams squandering scoring chance after scoring chance before the Red Sox finally went quietly after the Twins broke through for three runs in the top of the 12th.
Trevor Larnach wound up delivering the game-winning hit with his RBI single off Cooper Criswell, Matt Wallner added a RBI single of his own and Willi Castro a sacrifice fly. The Red Sox, meanwhile, struck out a season-high 20 times, went 1 for 19 with runners in scoring position and stranded 17 men on base.
The loss puts Boston five games out of a playoff spot with eight games to play, and even with two games to play against Minnesota this weekend, the Red Sox can’t get any closer than three games by the time the Twins leave town.
After the way they played Friday, nobody could credibly argue the Red Sox deserve to play in October.
Coming off two strong outings to begin his MLB career, Richard Fitts delivered another gem in a game the Red Sox couldn’t afford to lose. The rookie pitched five scoreless innings, allowing five hits and a walk while striking out three, and worked his way out of a pair of jams in the fourth and fifth innings to keep the Twins off the board.
In the process he became the first pitcher in Red Sox history to throw five-plus scoreless innings in each of his first three big league outings, and just the second in MLB history after Cincinnati’s Andrew Abbott in 2023.
Boston took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on a two-out RBI single by Trevor Story, who capitalized on Tyler O’Neill’s leadoff walk and Wilyer Abreu’s base hit to put runners at the corners. The Red Sox had no shortage of other opportunities, but as has so often been the case lately, they couldn’t convert.
How bad did it get? The Red Sox stranded at least one runner in scoring position in every inning from the third inning through the 11th.
Minnesota eventually took advantage, finally breaking through with a run in the top of the seventh to tie the game at 1-1. With two on and one out, Chris Martin drew a ground ball that should have gone for an inning-ending double play, but Rafael Devers and Enmanuel Valdez couldn’t convert the play and Byron Buxton scored from third.
Boston’s most tantalizing chances came starting in the eighth. With two outs in the eighth Connor Wong reached on an infield single and Trevor Story doubled down the right field line to put men at second and third. Masataka Yoshida pinch hit for Nick Sogard and was hit by a pitch, loading the bases, but Ceddanne Rafaela couldn’t deliver the decisive blow, softly lining out to second base to end the inning.
Then, after Kenley Jansen pitched a perfect inning to keep it tied heading to the bottom of the ninth, Jarren Duran led off with a single and advanced to third on a stolen base and a wild pitch. But Wilyer Abreu struck out to end the threat.
Josh Winckowski gave Boston another chance by throwing a scoreless 10th, and after Wong moved Abreu over to third with a sacrifice bunt, all the Red Sox needed was a fly ball to win the game. Instead what they got was a soft chopper to the pitcher by Romy Gonzalez, which resulted in Abreu being thrown out at home, and an inning-ending strikeout by Rafaela.
The only saving grace was Minnesota couldn’t come up with a big hit either, but after the Red Sox failed to come through in the 11th, something eventually had to give. The Twins finally broke through with three runs in the 12th, and even though Boston was finally able to get a run across with Wong’s groundout to short, by that point it was too little too late.
Now, the Red Sox have no choice but to play out the string, knowing once again they’ll be on the outside looking in this October.
