Tyler O’Neill started the season as Boston’s best hitter, but lately the Red Sox outfielder has found himself mired in a serious slump.
Things didn’t get any better for him Friday night.
O’Neill went 0 for 4 with four strikeouts in Friday’s 7-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, marking a lowlight of what was a poor all-around showing for the Red Sox as a whole. Kutter Crawford endured his worst outing of the season, and the club was collectively outplayed by the Brewers, who currently stand first in the NL Central and have ranked among the top teams in baseball most of the season.
Dating back to Tuesday O’Neill has struck out in seven consecutive plate appearances, and he’s now batting .157 with a 43% strikeout rate in the month of May.
Crawford, who has been among the best pitchers in the league through the first two months, didn’t have his best stuff on Friday. The right-hander was tagged for six runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out four, and his 4.1 innings marked his fewest in a game so far.
The short start also snapped a streak of seven consecutive starts in which Crawford had pitched into at least the sixth inning.
The Brewers scored three runs off Crawford in both the third and fifth innings. Brice Turang started the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the third before William Contreras smoked a two-run home run off the Green Monster seats to make it 3-0.
David Hamilton got a run back for Boston with an RBI double in the fourth, but Milwaukee quickly responded in the fifth, with Christian Yelich ripping an RBI double and then Willy Adames delivering the knockout blow in the form of a two-run double to deep right field, which chased Crawford from the game and put the Brewers up 6-1.
The Red Sox were at least able to stay within striking distance. Dom Smith cut the deficit to four with his solo home run to dead center field in the bottom of the sixth, and in the top of the seventh Chase Anderson flirted with disaster by loading the bases with one out, only to then strike out Jake Bauers and Joey Ortiz to escape unscathed.
Earlier in the game Boston also benefitted from a sensational diving catch in center field by Ceddanne Rafaela, who covered an astonishing distance to rob Ortiz of what seemed like a sure double in the gap his first time up in the second inning.
In the end it didn’t matter, and after a week in which the Red Sox regularly found ways to rally after struggling to come from behind most of the season, Friday represented a regression to the mean. Boston went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight men on base, at one point squandering a second-and-third situation in the fourth before later stranding a man at third without scoring in the fifth.
It was at least a standout showing for rookie David Hamilton, who went 3 for 4 with a double for his first career three-hit game. Jarren Duran also went 3 for 4 with a double and Smith scored both of Boston’s runs.
Adames led the Brewers by going 3 for 5 with a pair of doubles and two RBI, Yelich went 3 for 4 with an RBI double and a walk, and Contreras went 2 for 4 with the two-run home run and two runs scored. Lexington’s Sal Frelick, who started in right field and batted seventh for the Brewers, went 0 for 4 with a flyout and three groundouts in his first game at Fenway Park as a big leaguer.
With the loss Boston falls to 26-25 and will look to bounce back Saturday afternoon when Nick Pivetta (2-2, 3.04) takes the mound against Milwaukee’s Colin Rea (3-2, 4.07). First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 p.m.
