The Red Sox are fully back down to earth after the thrill of sweeping the Yankees. Boston fell to Washington 10-2 on Wednesday and dropped the series to the Nationals. The Red Sox ran out of momentum after they won the series opener.
The starter didn’t have it in the finale and the bats resembled their usual underwhelming selves.
Here’s three takeaways from Wednesday’s loss.
PROBLEMS FOR PAYTON Payton Tolle put together a sensational outing through an illness Friday when he allowed just one hit in seven
shutout innings against the Yankees. His start Wednesday afternoon took a complete 180.
The young left-hander struggled to begin the fourth inning and surrendered six earned runs on seven hits in just 3.0-plus innings of work. Tolle struck out five but walked three in a step back on the mound as the rotation comes off of the significant run of quality starts.
BATS FALL SHORT AGAIN
The Red Sox put together solid at-bats even into Monday’s win before a rapid falloff. Boston mustered just a run and four hits on Tuesday. Wednesday wasn’t much better with four hits for most of the afternoon before the lineup mustered a pair of runs in the eighth inning.
The New York series offered a flash in the pan, but the lineup doesn’t have enough to make that run consistent.
COAST TO COAST
The Red Sox will not play another game at Fenway Park until after the All-Star break on July 17 against the Tampa Bay Rays. Boston hits the road for nine games and will travel coast to coast to do so.
Boston heads to Anaheim for three games with the Angels, including another installment of Sunday Night Baseball on NBC. After an off-day, the Red Sox continue with three games against the surprisingly solid Chicago White Sox and finish the first half with a three-game set at Citi Field against the also-underwhelming New York Mets.
