Red Sox blow lead in extras, lose to Royals 2-1 in 12 innings

It took until the top of the th inning but the Red Sox were ultimately able to scratch across the challenge s first run And yet as has become so often the situation in recent weeks the bullpen couldn t hold the lead Garrett Whitlock blew his third save in his last four appearances allowing Kansas City to tie the competition in the bottom of the th before the Royals ultimately won - on a walk-off single by Freddy Fermin in the th The loss dropped Boston - back to and the Red Sox are also now - in one-run games with six straight losses Both starting pitchers were in full control throughout the first half of the challenge Royals right-hander Michael Lorenzen retired the first batters he faced and held the Red Sox scoreless with only two singles through the first five innings and Red Sox rookie Hunter Dobbins held his ground limiting Kansas City to a handful of singles It wasn t until the bottom of the fifth where either crew was able to apply a few real pressure With one out in the inning Royals outfielder Kyle Isbel hit a triple into the right field gap giving Kansas City a chance to take the lead with only a fly ball to the outfield Instead Dobbins drew a weak ground ball to shortstop from Jonathan India and Trevor Story s throw home beat Isbel by a mile catching the outfielder in a rundown As if that wasn t bad enough for Kansas City once Wong threw to Bregman to tag Isbel out the Red Sox third baseman then flung the ball over to second to gun down India The effect a rare - - - double play to end the inning Boston s first scoring chance came in the following inning but while there wasn t any dramatic baserunning blunder the aftermath was the same Ceddanne Rafaela led off the inning with a double and Lorenzen later hit Bregman to put two men on with two outs but Kristian Campbell struck out looking on a ball that appeared to be below the zone to end the inning Dobbins got more help from his defense in the sixth when Ceddanne Rafaela robbed Bobby Witt Jr of at least a double by chasing down a deep fly ball to the warning track and making the grab right as he crashed into the wall He finished out the - - inning to wrap up his terrific day posting six scoreless innings with five hits no walks and six strikeouts on pitches Dobbins has now posted a ERA through his first four career MLB starts Despite the rookie s low pitch count Alex Cora opted for reliever Greg Weissert in the seventh inning to avoid having Dobbins face Maikel Garcia OPS a third time Weissert wound up walking both Garcia and Michael Massey to put two men on with no outs but he was able to draw a double play from Mark Canha and a flyout from Freddie Fermin to strand the go-ahead run at third Wilyer Abreu made a great running catch on a fast sinking liner to preserve the scoreless tie Lorenzen came out of the contest after seven scoreless innings having allowed only three hits no walks and a hit batsman He gave way for former Red Sox reliever John Schreiber who has been excellent for Kansas City with a ERA in appearances coming into Friday Schreiber allowed a single to Connor Wong and got two outs and then Kansas City opted for Lucas Erceg to face Devers and he drew a groundout to end the eighth The Red Sox revealed themselves on their back heels again in the eighth when India doubled against left-hander Justin Wilson With first base open Cora opted to intentionally walk Witt and after Wilson struck out Vinnie Pasquantino he summoned Justin Slaten who has struggled mightily over the past two weeks Slaten was prominently involved in blowing back-to-back leads in Toronto and then on Sunday against Minnesota he gave up the lead again in the club s eventual loss But his last time out on Thursday he bounced back with scoreless innings and Friday he came through again drawing a groundout from Salvador Perez to end the threat before then pitching a scoreless ninth to send the contest to extra innings Both Boston and Kansas City went to their closers in the th and after Carlos Estevez sent the Red Sox down - - in the top of the frame Aroldis Chapman returned the favor and kept his association in the match The Red Sox completely broke through in the top of the th Duran moved the extra-innings ghost runner Rafaela over to third with a ground out and then Devers brought Rafaela home with an infield grounder that was initially ruled a single but overturned as a groundout on review But Whitlock couldn t finish the job The right-hander s first pitch went to the backstop and allowed the ghost runner to reach third and then surrendered a leadoff walk to Witt and a game-tying single by Pasquantino That put two men on with no outs but Whitlock was at least able to buckle down and strike out the next two batters he faced Then Cora went to Brennan Bernardino for a lefty-on-lefty matchup and he drew a Massey pop-out to send the contest to the th When the Red Sox couldn t amount the writing was on the wall and the Royals completely put the contest away when Cavan Biggio moved the ghost runner to third with a bunt and Fermin ended it with an RBI single