ATLANTA — Mike Yastrzemski lined a run-scoring double in the 10th inning Friday night, and the Boston Red Sox fell 3-2 to the Atlanta Braves after erasing a two-run deficit and running out of steam on the bases.
The Braves took their league-leading 31st win when Yastrzemski drove in the winning run, handing Boston a loss to open a six-game road trip. The Red Sox reached extra innings tied after Marcelo Mayer’s home run in the seventh, but they finished 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base, another missed chance in a game they spent most of the night chasing.
Boston’s sloppiness away from the plate mattered just as much as the hits it did not get. Jarren Duran was picked off after a first-inning walk. Ceddanne Rafaela drew a one-out walk in the second and was stranded, then walked the next inning. Mickey Gasper singled to lead off the fourth and was caught stealing. Rafaela doubled to open the fifth and was caught trying to swipe third. In a game that turned on one-run margins, the Red Sox kept giving away outs.
They also had to claw back from the early hole. Carlos Narváez doubled in the sixth and Gasper drove him in to cut the deficit to 2-1, then Mayer tied it with his seventh-inning blast. That comeback gave Boston a chance to steal a win against a Braves bullpen that entered with a league-leading 3.06 ERA, but the line kept tilting the other way once the game went past nine innings.
Chad Tracy said afterward that he hoped the road trip could help the club find a better offensive rhythm. He said the group had shown better at-bats away from home during his brief time with the team, and that the bigger issue Friday was careless mistakes on the bases that could have turned into opportunities. Gasper was harsher on his own decision to run, saying, “That can’t happen,” and adding that his fourth-inning steal attempt came as he tried to get into scoring position and let Willson hit.
Rafaela sounded just as frustrated. He said he was trying to take his opportunities, believed he had the fifth-inning bag, and still got thrown out. He added that he was just playing hard and trying to win ballgames.
The result fit a familiar split for Boston. Before Friday, the red sox had been better on the road than at home, hitting.247 away from Fenway Park compared with.223 at home, scoring 4.8 runs per game on the road versus 2.8 at home, and producing 20 home runs away from home compared with 11 at home. They had also hit.294 with runners in scoring position on the road and.174 at home. Those numbers did not rescue them in Atlanta, but they explain why this loss felt as if it belonged to a team that can still travel, still threaten and still leave too much on the table.
Spencer Strider, who entered with a 2.89 ERA and was making his third start back from the injured list, did his part to keep the Braves in position. Boston, meanwhile, will have to carry the same question deeper into the trip: whether the road version of the lineup can keep creating chances without spending them first.
