The Boston Red Sox will be looking to extend their winning streak to 10 games Sunday when they wrap up a four-game series against the visiting Tampa Bay Rays.
Boston owns the longest active winning streak in the majors and has not won 10 straight games since the 2018 season. The Red Sox have outscored their opponents by 43 runs during the winning streak and are averaging 7.3 runs per game in the nine wins.
Boston has three one-run victories against Tampa Bay in the series. The Red Sox prevailed 4-3 Thursday, 5-4 Friday and 1-0 Saturday. Garrett Crochet tossed the first complete game of his career Saturday.
“It’s incredibly satisfying,” Crochet said. “Toro (Boston first baseman Abraham Toro) made a great play. Trevor (shortstop Trevor Story) made a great play, and Narvaez (catcher Carlos Narvaez) was good on the buttons all day, and just between-innings dialogue was really great. I felt really good. Nice to keep the streak going, too.”
The Tampa Bay offense was held to three hits Saturday. The Rays had a chance to tie the game in the sixth, but Toro threw Taylor Walls out at the plate on a bunt by Ha-Seong Kim.
“When (Tampa Bay) decided to challenge it, Carlos was coming out to the mound, and he was pretty confident,” Crochet said. “I saw the video, and I wasn’t super confident until they showed the next angle. But that was a very awkward, uncomfortable throw — and he put it right on the money. So it was huge.”
The Rays didn’t have a baserunner after the sixth inning.
“(Kim) did a hell of a job to stick with it and get the bunt down, but my momentum kind of stopped,” Walls said. “So by the time he got the bunt down I kind of had to start going (again) and that little split second of stopping my momentum and trying to get it back is the difference in being safe by a foot and a half or out.
“If I do what I’m supposed to do, I’m safe 100 percent of the time.”
Crochet and Brayan Bello are the only Boston pitchers who have thrown a complete game this season. Bello (5-3, 3.27 ERA) is listed as Boston’s probable starter for Sunday’s game.
“(Crochet) attacks, he filled up the strike zone,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said following the loss. “I looked up in the sixth or seventh inning and he had almost 80 percent strikes. A really good pitcher that had everything going.”
Bello, who throws right-handed, is 2-4 with a 5.52 ERA in eight career appearances (all starts) against Tampa Bay.
Righty Ryan Pepiot (6-6, 3.32) is scheduled to take the mound for the Rays, who have lost 10 of 13 and are 2-7 on a 10-game road trip. Pepiot has made five career starts against the Red Sox and is 0-3 with a 4.91 ERA.