Martinez slam offset by early oddities

BOSTON -- There was no full moon at Fenway Park on Wednesday night, but there was a ball in the top of the first inning that literally got stuck in the webbing of the glove Michael Chavis was using to play first base, forcing him to step on the bag and concede what would have been an easy force at the plate.

There was also right fielder Kevin Pillar losing the third out of the second inning in the twilight on a routine fly ball by Austin Meadows. The very next pitch was swatted into the seats in right field by Brandon Lowe for a two-run homer.

At the time, the Red Sox should have been down by a run. Instead, it was four, and Boston went on to a 9-5 loss to the Rays.

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In addition, the Sox had a costly baserunning blunder for the second straight night. Down 6-0, Pillar (4-for-5 on the night) tried to stretch a single off the Monster into a double, ending the bottom of the third and preventing Rafael Devers and J.D. Martinez from the chance to inch the team closer.

It was hard not to think back to those early miscues when Martinez clocked a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth, trimming what was once an 8-0 deficit to a mere three runs.

“Yeah, when things aren’t going well, you see some weird stuff happening,” said Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke. “We have the force at home plate there, [that] changes it. Pillar catches that ball, obviously, that’s two runs difference. Things aren’t going well, that’s all there is to it. They’re not going well; we’re not getting breaks. And weird things are happening.”

The Red Sox would have had a better chance of overcoming their early bad luck if not for a dominant night from Rays ace Blake Snell. The lefty, building back up from elbow woes, showcased his most powerful arsenal of the season. Snell fired five shutout innings, scattering four hits, walking none, striking out six and inducing countless ugly swings.

Red Sox starter Zack Godley didn’t come close to matching Snell. The Rays jumped on him for three homers. Godley allowed 10 hits and eight runs in three innings (plus three batters in the fourth).

It was a significant step back from the four shutout innings he threw in his last start against Toronto.

There was some good news on the pitching front. Ryan Weber, who had been bounced from the rotation after three shaky starts, returned from the team’s alternate training site in Pawtucket, R.I. and threw six solid innings (five hits, one run, no walks, four strikeouts) in relief.

For Roenicke, it’s hard to know what he’s going to get from most of his pitchers from one outing to the next.

“Yeah, no doubt, you see Weby go out and throw like that and you’re just [thinking], it would be nice to reverse those zeros. But this is just a strange game, and you have things happen,” Roenicke said. “Zack, the last outing, threw up a bunch of zeros. Just hard to say what’s going to happen from game to game.”

Roenicke suggested that perhaps the Sox have found the bulk-innings guy they need in Weber, which could be valuable, given how many openers the club is deploying.

“Well, it went well tonight, so I can’t argue with him,” said Weber. “But I mean, I pitched decent in this role last year, so maybe during that bullpen game we have, the day we don’t have a starter, there’s a bullpen guy that pitches in front of me or whatever it is, I’ll be available for multiple innings out of the bullpen. After tonight, it’s obviously worked better than the three starts I had, that’s for sure.”

Without a doubt, Roenicke is still searching for answers with his team off to a 6-12 start and in danger of getting swept in by the Rays in this four-game series

It is up to lefty Kyle Hart, a 19th-round pick in the 2016 Draft who will be making his Major League debut, to prevent that from happening.

And what a story that would be, considering the Rays have now ripped off 12 wins in their last 13 games at Fenway Park, including the last seven in a row.