Kenley Jansen has some things to say
The seventh inning Monday afternoon proved to be the Red Sox' Heartbreak Hills.
If the Sox' Marathon Monday game against the Guardians was to be compared to the race taking place a few hundred feet away from Fenway Park, an analogy would have been easy to uncover. That was because it appeared Alex Cora's team simply seemed to hit a wall in the home stretch.
The end result was a 6-0 loss at the hands of Cleveland. How it landed there could be traced to what transpired with seven outs to go.
With the game scoreless and two outs in the seventh, Cora brought in reliever Greg Weissert to face pinch-hitter Will Brennan with a runner on. The matchup wasn't kind to the hosts, with Brennan taking a sweeper around the right-field foul pole for a two-run homer.
Making matters worse in the frame was a collision between left fielder Tyler O'Neill and third baseman Rafael Devers, that secured the final out of the inning but left both players sprawled out on the field. It appeared as though the two players butted heads, forcing a bloodied O'Neill from the game.
The next two innings things only got worse for the Red Sox, with the Guardians scoring two in both the eighth and ninth innings in large part because of more shoddy defense from the Sox.
The entire scenario spoiled another solid outing by starter Kutter Crawford, who lowered his ERA to 0.42 after pitching 5 2/3 scoreless innings.
The Red Sox' offense only ended up with three hits, all singles.
All in all, it was one of the worst Patriots' Day finishes this team has had in some time.