If you were to go back to May 9 of last year and tell people around the Red Sox that one of the best pitchers’ duels of 2024 would be between Brayan Bello and Zack Littell, you would have surely been met with some puzzled looks.
It also might have made a few people rethink letting Littell go, which at the very least would have made the lineup’s job a lot easier Thursday night.
The former Red Sox right-hander, who pitched two games for Boston last May before being picked up off the scrap heap by Tampa Bay, completely dominated Boston’s slumping offense in the Rays’ 2-0 win. Littell retired 21 of the 22 batters he faced over seven shutout innings, allowing only a second-inning single to Nick Sogard while striking out seven.
Sogard wound up being the only baserunner the Red Sox got all game, and the only reason the Red Sox had any chance was because Bello and the pitching staff were excellent too.
But the way Littell was throwing the ball, it just didn’t matter. The end result was the club’s seventh shutout loss of the season and the latest in a string of no-shows by the offense.
“We’re not executing. At one point we were the best offense in baseball against righties and now we’re not producing runs,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “(Littell) did a good job moving the cutter, throwing four-seamers up, expanding with his split down, kind of the same thing we saw the first few days here.”
Even for Tampa Bay — an organization with a long track record of turning relative nobodies into impact arms — Littell has been a remarkable success story. Last season the journeyman right-hander spent about a week with the Red Sox before being designated for assignment, and since landing in Tampa Bay he’s emerged as one of the Rays’ best pitchers.
Previously a reliever, Littell shifted to the starting rotation midway through 2023 and this year came into the night with a 3.73 ERA over 144.2 innings. He may as well have been Nolan Ryan on Thursday, mowing the Red Sox down with ease throughout his seven dominant innings.
Offensively, the Rays didn’t exactly light things up at Tropicana Field, but what little they managed was enough. Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead in the third on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Lowe, and in the seventh the Rays scored on a groundout by Dylan Carlson, capitalizing on an error by Danny Jansen that allowed Taylor Walls to reach third on a stolen base attempt.
Bello kept the third from getting out of hand, striking out Jonathan Aranda to strand two runners on base. He wound up allowing just the one run over 5.2 innings, giving up five hits, two walks and a hit by pitch while striking out seven.
It was the latest in a string of strong performances by the 25-year-old, who has now posted a 3.41 ERA over 68.2 innings in his last 12 starts dating back to the All-Star break.
Zach Penrod, Justin Slaten and Greg Weissert combined to allow one unearned run over the last 2.1 innings, with the run coming against Slaten in the seventh. They kept the game within reach after the Rays pulled Littell, who only threw 75 pitches, but the Red Sox lineup didn’t fare any better against Tampa Bay relievers Edwin Uceta and Garrett Cleavinger.
At this point, Boston’s offensive performance has become straight up offensive.
Since the start of September the Red Sox have batted .219 with a .641 OPS while averaging 3.4 runs and 10.1 strikeouts per game. Rafael Devers (0 for 3, three strikeouts) is batting .183 with only one extra-base hit this month, Jarren Duran (0 for 3) is batting .211 and Triston Casas (0 for 3) is batting .214. Things got especially bleak in Tampa Bay these past few days, with the Red Sox managing only five runs on 10 hits over the three-game series.
It’s a stark contrast to June and July when the Red Sox offense was humming, but Cora said ever since last month’s three-game sweep at home against Houston the club’s been stuck in a rut.
“We didn’t have too many bad hitters a month and a half ago,” Cora said. “If you look at our lineup everybody was clicking and everybody was doing their part, and right now collectively we’re slumping.”
The Red Sox finish the road trip 2-5 and now return to Fenway Park a game under .500 at 76-77. Boston is now four games back of the last playoff spot with nine games to play, and while the Red Sox could help their cause with a big showing against the Minnesota Twins this weekend, the Detroit Tigers have now moved into a tie with the Twins for the third Wild Card, and the Seattle Mariners remain ahead of Boston in the standings as well.
“It’s an uphill battle,” Cora said. “Realistically it’s very tough but we still have three games against them.”
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