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Rays Beat Porcello, Red Sox 5-1 For Boston’s First Series Loss Since July

Porcello fell to 15-7 after a middling outing against the Rays in St. Petersburg.

Aug 25, 2018; St. Petersburg, FL: Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Rick Porcello is taken out of the game by Alex Cora after he hit Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Willy Adames at Tropicana Field. (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)

Aug 25, 2018; St. Petersburg, FL: Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Rick Porcello is taken out of the game by Alex Cora after he hit Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Willy Adames at Tropicana Field. (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)

Kim Klement-USA TODAY

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).

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Matt, a North Andover, Massachusetts native, has been with The Sports Hub since 2010. Growing up the son of Boston University All-American and Melrose High School hall-of-fame hockey player Steve Dolloff, sports was always a part of his life. After attending Northeastern University, Matt focused his love of sports on writing, extensively writing about all four major Boston teams. He also is a co-host of the Sports Hub Underground podcast and is a regular on-air contributor on the Sports Hub. Matt writes about all New England sports from Patriots football to Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.