TORONTO -- After being four outs from victory on Wednesday, only to lose in 10 innings, the Red Sox had the lead with five outs to go on Thursday.
Again, it slipped away, this time with a 4-2 defeat to the Blue Jays in which a rocket, three-run homer by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on a 3-2 misfire by Justin Slaten was the crushing blow.
For the 17-16 Red Sox, what could well have been a three-game sweep was instead a series loss to cap a 3-3 road trip.
Though the bullpen surrendering the lead two straight nights is always troubling, it was just one of three key takeaways from Thursday.
Abreu misread costly
When it comes to defense for the Red Sox, there isn’t more of a sure thing than Wilyer Abreu, who won the American League’s Gold Glove Award last season.
The right fielder just had the misfortune of his rare misplay taking place at the most inopportune time.
Here was the situation: The Red Sox were up, 2-1, in the bottom of the eighth with one out and a runner on first. It looked like it was about to be two outs with a runner on first when Bo Bichette hit a fly ball to right field.
Per Statcast, Abreu had a catch probability of 90 percent. Abreu drifted back, back, back and then fell down on the warning track as the ball dropped in. Now it was second and third with one out and Guerrero coming up.
“It was a routine fly,” said Abreu. “It was a bad read on my part. There’s not anything else I can say.”
But he did add this.
“On my part, that error is unacceptable,” Abreu said. “I'm gonna make sure that doesn't happen again.”
Slaten pitch execution more costly
Slaten was also on the mound Wednesday night when Alejandro Kirk hit a walk-off single to left. But that was more a product of the automatic runner advancing to third somewhat luckily on a one-out single, with Ceddanne Rafaela’s accurate throw from center hitting Guerrero on the backside as he was about to be tagged out.
On Thursday, it was a lack of execution at multiple points that cost the normally strong righty.
Nathan Lukes started the go-ahead rally with a single after falling behind 0-2 in the count. And even though Bichette was fortunate to be credited a double, he was behind in the count 1-2.
Then came the game-turning matchup against Guerrero, who fell behind 0-2 before working a seven-pitch at-bat and mashing Slaten’s ill-placed curveball for a three-run homer at an exit velocity of 111.8-mph and a projected distance of 404 feet.
Entering the night, hitters were 0-for-11 with five strikeouts against Slaten after falling behind 0-2. For his career, they were 5-for-60 with no homers.
“He didn't finish at-bats,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “A 1-2 hit, a 1-2 double, had Vladdy 0-2, and then a 3-2 homer. Usually he puts them away. He didn't do that.”
Was a curveball really the best choice in that spot?
“It's a situation where we had thrown a ton of fastballs [in the at-bat],” said Slaten. “Really good hitters, they don't let you beat them with the same pitch multiple times in an at-bat. We had thrown everything at the top of the zone. [Catcher Carlos Narváez] called it. Thought it was an absolutely amazing pitch call and I just didn't execute it. You have to get that pitch down and not in a place he can handle it. It just didn't happen.”
Houck rebound the bright spot
But all wasn’t lost, even in a loss. Tanner Houck had easily his best start of the season, looking like the pitcher who became an All-Star on the strength of a solid first half in ‘24.
In a season-high seven innings, Houck tamed Toronto’s offense, allowing four hits and a run while walking none and striking out six. He left with a 2-1 lead, a solo homer to Daulton Varsho in the seventh serving his only blemish.
Houck averaged 95.8 mph on his sinker, well above his season average of 93.9.
“Felt better kind of all around, especially in the delivery,” said Houck, who lowered his ERA from 7.58 to 6.38. “Talked about it before, being a hyper mobile guy, I need to really stay connected and in-tune with the delivery to go out there and execute pitches, and felt like Narvy and I really worked well together today and stuck to the game plan all the way through.”