Red Sox lose as key reliever's struggles continue with playoffs on horizon

BOSTON — Instant reactions to the Red Sox (84-73) opening their final week of the regular season with a 3-2 loss to the Guardians at Fenway:

1) Boston started its rather meaningless final homestand with a bit of a dud that won’t affect much going forward. The offense was once again sleepy against All-Star Parker Messick and lefty Erik Miller‘s concerning struggles continued in the top of the ninth, which decided the game.

The win was important for the Guardians as they kept pace with the White Sox, who beat the Royals in Kansas City. Cleveland remains a game ahead of Chicago in the Central race with the White Sox effectively four games behind the Red Sox (who have the head-to-head tiebreaker) for the second wild card spot and five games to go.

The Red Sox have lost eight of their last 12 and are under .500 (9-10) in September.

2) Miller was dominant in August after being acquired from the Giants, posting a 0.79 ERA and 20-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 11 games. September, though, has been a different story as he has now allowed six earned runs in 6 ⅓ September innings while walking nine batters and hitting two more.

Miller entered in a 2-2 game and immediately hit leadoff man Chase DeLauter, who took second on a seeing-eye single through the right side by Jo Adell. Old friend Nathaniel Lowe then made it a 3-2 game with a sac fly as part of an inning in which four batters reached.

September 22 is a bad time to fall out of the trust tree and time is running out for Miller to re-establish himself as a go-to weapon.

3) Payton Tolle got his work in, which is the most important thing after a nine-day layoff, but it wasn’t a pretty start. Tolle dealt with tons of traffic — he allowed eight hits and two walks to the Guardians — but still got through 5 ⅔ innings and threw 91 pitches.

It’s a near-certainty Tolle’s next start will come in the first round of the playoffs at Yankee Stadium. Understanding his regular season is over, Chad Tracy — on the day he became permanent manager — lifted Tolle in the middle of the inning, at least in part so the crowd could acknowledge a strong rookie season. The final ledger: Tolle logged 148 ⅔ innings over 26 big league starts, pitching to a 3.03 ERA with 171 strikeouts.

4) The trouble came in the second for the lefty, who allowed a parade of baserunners to start the inning. Angel Martínez doubled, then scored when David Fry hit a grounder that deflected off Tolle and skidded into right-center. Tolle then allowed another single (to Travis Bazzana) and walked Austin Hedges before Fry scored the second run on a double play ball off the bat of Brayan Rocchio.

Cleveland had at least one baserunner in all six innings in which Tolle appeared.

5) On a chilly night at Fenway, Mickey Gasper sat on the bench for 7 ½ innings, then entered the game and did what he does: homer. With Boston trailing 2-1, Gasper smoked the first pitch of the eighth inning from standout reliever Hunter Gaddis and sent it into the right field seats to tie the game before Miller entered and handed a run back.

Gasper now has 10 homers, all since August 17 (a span of 30 games and 99 plate appearances). He’s the sixth Red Sox hitter to hit double digits this year, joining Willson Contreras, Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Caleb Durbin.

6) Adley Rutschman had a very solid game at the plate, tallying three hits. He ripped doubles in his first two plate appearances against Messick, flew out to center at 99 mph in the sixth, then singled off Gaddis in the eighth.

Before the late single, Rutschman had a string of nine out of 12 hits going for extra bases. He’s hitting just .214 as a member of the Red Sox but there has been some slug along the way.

The Sox had eight hits but not much production as a result of them. Boston struck out 12 times, went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners.

7) Very quietly, Alec Gamboa has given the Red Sox a lot more than expected in a bullpen role. He got four outs in relief of Tolle on Tuesday and now has a sterling 1.16 ERA in 31 innings as a major leaguer.

Entering the game, 82% of Gamboa’s innings had come in low-leverage situations. Still, the lack of damage has been impressive, even if five of nine inherited runners have scored against him. With Tanner Houck now seemingly unlikely to make the postseason roster, Gamboa could steal a final bullpen spot.

8) Coming off a good weekend in St. Petersburg, Roman Anthony did not have a good night at the plate. He went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and three groundouts, including a first-pitch tapper with one out in the ninth.

9) With five games to go, the Sox will have to win out to match their record from last year, which was 89-73. The loss eliminated the possibility of the club’s second 90-win season since a 108-victory 2018.

10) After clinching a postseason berth Sunday, the Red Sox took the chance to get at least one veteran some rest. Trevor Story had the day off with Isiah Kiner-Falefa at shortstop and Andruw Monasterio at second. Willson Contreras (hand) was also out of the lineup against Messick, as were Jarren Duran and Mickey Gasper with a lefty on the mound.

11) The middle game of the series will pit righty Sonny Gray (17-5, 2.82 ERA) against Cleveland left-hander Foster Griffin (15-5, 3.67 ERA). It’s a 7:10 p.m. first pitch and the game will air exclusively on NESN.

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