Those of us — pretty much all of us — who hoped the Red Sox would rebound from three straight losses against the Rangers with a bravura performance against the Orioles got the exact opposite of what we wanted… for most of the game, at least as the team lost a surprise squeaker, 8-5, in a game that only felt close at the very end.

Brockton boy Sean Newcomb made the start and gave up four runs before he remembered how to throw a strike, Rafael Devers continued to flail about, and some gritty middle innings were wasted when Justin Slaten made hash of things and the whole operation got out of control. The only guys who did some good stuff were Rob Refsnyder against a lefty (duh) and Jarren Duran, who had a nice double. Other than that, ew, brother. Ew.

Until the top of the ninth, in which the Sox scored two runs before Devers walked to bring Bregman up as the potential tying run, but then he popped out. I’m still gung-ho on this team, and the ninth was very encouraging.

Three Studs

Oof. Okay.

1. Jarren Duran, who had a nice double, as noted above, and a (what ended up not being because of subsequent events) garbage-time RBI single.
2. Garrett Whitlock, who pitched two clean-enough scoreless innings.
3. Rob Refsnyder, who just hit lefties.

Three Duds

1. Sean Newcomb. Giving up four runs in the first inning is not ideal.
2. Rafael Devers. It’s bad right now.
3. Justin Slaten. It was also bad.

Play of the Game

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