Red Sox reactions: Sloppy play, Brayan Bello’s worst relief outing lead to Game 2 loss

· Yahoo Sports

NEW YORK — Instant reactions from the Red Sox’ 9-2 loss at Yankee Stadium in Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader:

1. The Red Sox (74-62) and Yankees (77-59) split the doubleheader. So what’s at stake Sunday in the series finale? A win for Boston would mean it leaves New York exactly as it arrived: two games behind the Yankees for the first AL Wild Card. A loss would put the Sox four games behind New York.

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2. Brayan Bello has been so effective as a bulk reliever for the Red Sox but he didn’t have his best stuff in this one. He couldn’t produce a shutdown inning after Boston took a 1-0 lead in the third inning. In the bottom half, he gave up three runs on two singles, one walk and a hit by pitch with a 1-2 count. Bello allowed four runs in 4 ⅓ innings. He had not given up more than one earned run in any of his other 12 relief appearances.

3. Boston has played some sloppy defense on this road trip with 10 errors in seven games. The Sox have made 74 errors this season. So the 10 this trip accounts for 13.5% of their errors this season.

Wilyer Abreu, the league’s best defensive right fielder, made an error during the Yankees’ three-run rally in the third inning. He also let a catchable ball drop in front of him during New York’s five-run eighth inning.

There were just a lot of things the Red Sox did poorly in this game, including reliever Raymond Burgos failing to cover first base in the eighth.

4. In both games of the doubleheader, Nick Sogard showed why he deserves to remain in the lineup when Trevor Story and Isiah Kiner-Falefa return from the IL. In the first game, he recorded two hits and made a tremendous throw on an 8-4-2 relay to cut down a runner at the plate. In Game 2, he hit a 351-foot opposite-field home run to right to put the Red Sox ahead 1-0 in the first inning. He didn’t miss when Yankees left-handed starter Max Fried left a 93.4 mph four-seam fastball at the top of the strike zone.

5. Like Sogard, Mickey Gasper has made it nearly impossible for the Red Sox to option him to Triple-A Worcester to make room for any of the returning injured players. He didn’t play in Game 1. And he didn’t start Game 2 but singled as a pinch hitter in the fifth inning. He has reached base in 12 of his 16 plate appearances on this road trip with two homers, one double, two singles and seven walks.

6. Both teams have made some poor decisions on the base paths in this series. The Red Sox caught a break in the second inning because of a Yankees’ base-running blunder. With runners at the corners and one out, Bello induced a weak grounder back to the mound. For some inexplicable reason, Luis García Jr. tried to score from third base. Bello easily threw him out at the plate.

7. One reason the Red Sox have turned around their season is by making more contact with runners on base, especially with a runner at third base and fewer than two outs.

But Boston had difficulty doing this in Game 2. Caleb Durbin and Andruw Monasterio both struck out swinging after the first two Red Sox hitters reached in the sixth inning. Durbin struck out with a runner at third base and two outs in the eighth. Durbin ranks in the 91st percentile in strikeout percentage and the 89th percentile in whiff percentage, making his contact struggles in this game an anomaly.

8. Bello’s bad outing comes after a poor start here in the AL Wild Card round last year. Before that, he had a 1.44 ERA in five starts at Yankee Stadium.

9. The Red Sox and Yankees will wrap up their four-game series with a 1:35 p.m. first pitch Sunday. Left-hander Ranger Suarez (5-3, 3.35 ERA) will start for Boston while right-hander Will Warren (8-6, 4.39 ERA) will pitch for New York.

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