Pablo Reyes tied the game with a dramatic two-run home run late, but Garrett Whitlock gave it right back by serving up back-to-back shots in the eighth as the Red Sox lost to the Nationals 6-2.
It was shaping up to be another dramatic, come-from-behind kind of night for the Red Sox.
Shut down through the first seven innings by Washington Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore, the Red Sox rallied to tie the game in the top of the eighth on a two-run home run by Pablo Reyes. With Garrett Whitlock coming on in the eighth and the bullpen pitching as well as any in baseball, it felt like only a matter of time before the Red Sox could complete the comeback.
Then, as quickly as the Red Sox got back into the game, the Nationals flipped the script.
Whitlock imploded in the bottom of the eighth, allowing four runs on back-to-back homers before he’d even recorded an out. Keibert Ruiz delivered the haymaker with the go-ahead three-run home run, and Stone Garrett tacked on the exclamation mark with a solo shot to cap off Washington’s 6-2 win.
More worrisome than the results, Whitlock’s velocity was also notably down, a troubling sign given that the righty only just came off the injured list over the weekend.
Before the late-inning theatrics the game was shaping up to be Boston’s quietest of the season offensively.
Gore, who came into the night with a 4.62 ERA and who allowed six runs on three homers in his last start, absolutely tied the Red Sox in a knot. The 24-year-old tossed 6.
