The Tampa Bay Rays handed Rick Porcello his seventh loss of the season on Saturday, handing the Boston Red Sox their first series loss since July 29-31 with a 5-1 win at Tropicana Field.
Porcello (15-7) powered through five innings allowing only one run to Tampa Bay, before things sort of came apart in the sixth. He departed with two runners on, replaced by reliever Ryan Brasier. The latter threw a wild pitch that scored Kevin Kiermaier, then allowed the second runner to score on a sacrifice fly by Joey Wendle. It marred an otherwise solid outing for Porcello, who ended up with three earned runs allowed in five-plus frames to raise his ERA to 4.18.
The Red Sox carried a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the fourth inning. Mitch Moreland scratched across a run by grounding into a double play in the second inning, scoring J.D. Martinez. But Rays left fielder Tommy Pham evened things up with a solo home run to deep center field off Porcello in the fourth.
After losing the first two games of the series, the Red Sox are guaranteed to suffer their first series loss since the Yankees took two out of three from them in the Bronx in late July.
Up Next: The Red Sox will try to avoid the series sweep on Sunday. They’ll have a tough customer to beat in Rays lefty Blake Snell (15-5, 2.07 ERA), countering with former Ray Nathan Eovaldi (5-5, 3.81 ERA).
Click here for all Red Sox updates from 98.5 The Sports Hub.