The Boston Purple Sox have endured their fair proportion of fluky and irritating losses this 12 months, however Monday’s 5-4 loss in opposition to the Minnesota Twins was particularly painful.
Coming off consecutive comeback wins in opposition to the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend, the Purple Sox appeared poised for his or her third straight win after taking a 4-3 lead within the prime of the ninth at Goal Discipline. However with solely three outs to go, Mom Nature all of the sudden intervened.
A rain delay halted the sport for 90 minutes in the course of the ninth, sapping Boston’s momentum and permitting the Twins to regroup. When the sport resumed, a drained Jordan Hicks got here out for his second straight save alternative after throwing 25 pitches on Sunday.
Hicks didn’t have it, permitting a single and hitting back-to-back batters to load the bases. After getting a pressure out, he surrendered a game-ending two-run single to Brooks Lee.
The defeat was the Purple Sox’s tenth walk-off lack of the season, dropping their document to 14-21 in one-run video games. It additionally value them a golden alternative to take over second place within the American League East after the New York Yankees fell to the Tampa Bay Rays earlier within the night.
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Boston can solely marvel how the underside of the ninth would have performed out had the sport not been disrupted or if Aroldis Chapman wasn’t injured. Hicks had already warmed up previous to the rain delay, and the prolonged pause might have contributed to his first blown save of the season.
“There’s nothing you are able to do in opposition to Mom Nature,” stated Alex Cora after the sport.
The Purple Sox have now misplaced 4 straight sequence openers because the All-Star Break. They’ll attempt to bounce again on Tuesday behind Lucas Giolito (6-2, 3.97 ERA), who’s trying to get again on observe after yielding 9 runs and 11 hits in 9 1/3 innings over his final two begins mixed.
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