ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Xander Bogaerts spoke the truth on Saturday when he said the struggling Red Sox needed a victory against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday night.
Alex Cora gently pushed back on that idea before the game.
“You stay the course; it’s 162 games,” he said.
The present heading has the Sox in turbulent seas. The Rays finished off a three-game sweep with a 3-2 victory on Sunday before a crowd of 17,816 at Tropicana Field.
That’s four straight losses for the Sox for the first time this season and five of six overall.
They’re now 1½ games behind the Rays in the American League East and only four games ahead of the Yankees and Blue Jays in the loss column.
The Rays have won four in a row and nine of 12.
“Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!” chanted their fans as the game ended.
The game ended with J.D. Martinez popping up to shallow right field with runners on first and third, leaving an eager Bogaerts on deck.
Like several of his teammates, Martinez is slumping. He was 1 for 14 in the series and is 5 of 44 in his last 11 games with two RBIs. He hasn’t homered since July 21.
Cora remained resolute afterward.
“We’re still here,” he said. “Obviously we don’t like losing. We want to be more consistent. It’s just part of the season.”
Tampa Bay starter Shane McClanahan (5-4) and three relievers allowed eight hits and walked four. But the Sox were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position and 1 for 18 with men on base.
The Sox at least battled in the ninth inning. Kiké Hernández (3 for 5) singled with two outs against Matt Wisler.
Rafael Devers followed with a single to left field that pushed pinch runner Jonathan Araúz to third base.
Martinez got ahead 3 and 1 but Wisler recorded his first save of the season when he threw a good slider that Martinez couldn’t square up.
“He didn’t make a mistake,” Martinez said. “He threw all sliders and painted all of them, really.”
The Sox are 5 of 32 (.156) with runners in scoring position during their losing streak.
“We had a lot of traffic a lot of time. We need to do a better job of controlling the strike zone,” Cora said.
Nick Pivetta (8-5) allowed three runs over 4⅔ innings to take the loss. The hitters could not back him up.
“I really don’t think there’s room for panic here,” Pivetta said. “We’ve played incredible baseball up to this point. It’s a 162-game season. We’ve just to grind through this.”
Pivetta has faced the Rays twice before this season and pitched 11⅔ scoreless innings, allowing only two hits. That included six no-hit innings at Tropicana Field on June 24.
It was more of the same at first on Sunday as Pivetta retired the first eight batters he faced, striking out three of them.
That streak ended when he walked No. 9 hitter Mike Zunino on four pitches. Pivetta then fell behind Brandon Lowe, 3 and 0. Lowe swung through a high fastball and foul tipped another high fastball.
Pivetta then left a slider over the plate that was lined over the wall in right field.
“It slipped out of my hand to be honest with you and just kind of hung up there,” Pivetta said.
McClanahan blanked the Sox for three innings before Hunter Renfroe homered to center in the fourth. Christian Vazquez singled and Alex Verdugo drew a walk.
The threat ended there as Kevin Plawecki was retired on a fly ball to left field and Bobby Dalbec struck out swinging.
The Rays built the lead to 3-1 in the fifth inning when Wander Franco singled, took second on wild pitch and scored on a single to right field by Manuel Margot.
With two outs and Margot on second, Cora didn’t take a chance with Lowe and called in lefthander Josh Taylor.
Taylor, who is usually a late-inning option, retired Lowe on a foul pop to hold the deficit at two runs.
McClanahan, an impressive 24-year-old rookie, allowed one run on four hits over six innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. He threw 62 of his 88 pitches for strikes.
Verdugo doubled off Drew Rasmussen leading off the seventh inning. Plawecki followed with a deep fly ball to right that Margot drifted around looking for before making a catch up against the wall.
That moved Verdugo to third and he scored on a wild pitch.
Hernández singled with two outs before Devers saw seven pitches and drew a walk. Martinez had a chance to change the game but grounded into a force at second.
The Sox are off on Monday before opening a three-game series at Detroit on Tuesday with Garrett Richards on the mound.
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeteAbe.
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Red Sox swept as rally falls short at Tampa Bay - The Boston Globe
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