Red Sox Notes: Javier Báez’s Identical Swings Doom Boston In Series Loss
Javier Báez crushed the Red Sox’s momentum on the same pitch in two at-bats in Tuesday’s 10-9 extra-innings loss for the Boston.
The Detroit outfielder took them game over with a pair of three-run homers against Red Sox relievers. He delivered the lead in the bottom of the sixth before he tagged Greg Weissert, in his second inning of work, for the walk-off three-run blast.
Same two pitches. Same two results. Game over and a series loss.
“He’s hitting for average, he’s hitting for power,” Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “At one point, he was kind of one of the best players in baseball. They lost him for a while. When he signed here, he struggled. He got hurt. He had surgery. He looks like he’s back.”
The Red Sox have had several losses slip away over the last three weeks when their top leverage arms simply haven’t gotten the job done. A disastrous loss in Toronto after holding a 6-0 lead against the Blue Jays. The series finale against the Minnesota Twins at Fenway Park. The list continues on. There’s other issues with strikeouts at the plate and errors in the field that must be handled, but the Red Sox simply have to make better pitches in leverage situations with their better relievers on the mound.
“We didn’t do a good job against the bottom of the lineup,” Cora said. “That’s the bottom line. We walked Javy once… and he hit two homers. He’s swinging the bat well. We need to do a better job.”
“We have to execute pitches, that’s the bottom line,” Cora added. “There were two pitches there to Javy in the zone.”
The Red Sox had multiple chances to even the series before Thursday’s finale against arguably the best starting pitcher in baseball in Tigers ace Tarik Skubal.
Here are more notes from Tuesday’s Red Sox-Tigers game:
— Kristian Campbell came into his at-bat in the 11th inning on a 3-for-34 skid before he delivered the go-ahead two-run home run for the Red Sox.
— David Hamilton (second) and Alex Bregman (10th) also homered for Boston in the loss.
— Brayan Bello did not complete the fifth inning for the second consecutive start. The Red Sox starter tossed 4 2/3 innings where he allowed six hits, three runs (two earned) with two walks and four strikeouts on 92 pitches. Bello sits with a 2-0 record and a 2.33 ERA in five starts this season for Boston.
— The Red Sox have lost three consecutive extra-inning games with a 3-4 mark in extra innings in 2025.
— Boston now has 11 one-run losses for the most in MLB, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage.
— The Red Sox sit at 22-22 and 9-9 this season against the American League Central.
— The Red Sox and Tigers play the series finale Wednesday night at Comerica Park. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. ET. You can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.