Arroyo's homer not enough as Red Sox drop opener

BOSTON -- The two recurring themes of the recent Red Sox woes reared their ugly heads before a deluge of rain fell from the Fenway Park sky.

The rain -- which caused a one hour and 29 minute rain delay -- only prolonged another entry in a recent line of frustrating defeats for the Red Sox. A lack of offense and spotty defense haunted Boston in Monday night’s 4-3 loss to the Rockies in 10 innings.

The hope was that the start of a homestand could provide a clean slate from the struggles the Sox had endured of late. But instead, things looked all too familiar for a team that is 12-20 since an eight-game winning streak ended on May 6, and 7-14 since May 21.

“Not a good game,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “It’s just frustrating. We didn’t make plays and they scored runs. They made plays when they had to, and we didn’t. That’s the bottom line.”

When the Sox loaded the bases with nobody out against Rockies starter Connor Seabold to open the bottom of the first, that elusive offensive eruption at last seemed within range.

But Rafael Devers offered at the first pitch, a changeup below the strike zone, and tapped into a 1-2-3 double play.

“The other day, he was overly aggressive with [Gerrit] Cole, and he hit it out of the ballpark to left field,” said Cora. “That’s the beauty of Raffy. It was a changeup down in the zone. It happens. I don’t know how down it was. I’ll have to take a look at it. It’s a pitch that sometimes he hunts and hits it in the air. It’s one of those that it looks bad because he hit a ground ball to the pitcher. The other day, when he swung at the changeup and hit it out of the ballpark, everybody was praising him. It’s baseball, right?”

There were a couple of flickers on offense: Justin Turner laced an RBI double to the gap in right-center in the sixth to tie it up, and Christian Arroyo unloaded for a go-ahead solo homer in the seventh.

Even after the Rockies came back to tie it, Devers took the swing the Red Sox needed in bottom of the eighth, hammering a laser to right-center that seemed destined to be a two-run homer, which would have given the Sox a 4-2 lead. Instead, though, it was just another moment of frustration for Boston, as Nolan Jones timed his leap just right and put his glove over the short bullpen wall to reel it back in for an out as Devers looked on in disbelief.

“The kid, he had a good jump, he was playing deep and he made the catch,” said Cora. According to Statcast, the liner had an expected batting average of .870.

This marked the sixth straight game the Red Sox failed to score multiple runs in an inning.

Then there were the defensive miscues. The Rockies broke a scoreless tie when Kiké Hernández bounced a throw to first on what should have been the third out of the top of the fourth inning. It was the MLB-leading 14th error of the season for Hernández, and 13th on a throw.

“He just threw it away,” said Cora.

The Rockies also got a gift run on what should have been the third out of the 10th inning when Triston Casas couldn’t field a grounder hit his way. That error allowed an insurance run to come home.

With rain falling before that play, Casas thought the ball was going to be slower off the bat.

“I guess the ball was hit a little harder than I thought,” said Casas. “Visibility was low, but the field was good.”

For the Red Sox, who fell below .500 again at 33-34, things haven’t been so good lately. But they will come to the ballpark again on Tuesday thinking that will be the day things turn around.

“I think overall as a group, we all think that we can do better,” said Casas. “We're all professionals on this team, which is why we take losses like this so hard, because there were times that it was just a lapse of focus, to say the least. We have a good understanding of what we need to do to get back to playing the caliber of baseball that everybody deserves.”