Red Sox takeaways: Sloppy defense returns in wasted opportunity; Hunter Dobbins to IL

New York Times

5 hours ago

SAN FRANCISCO – A quiet visitors clubhouse, players scrolling on their phones at their lockers, spoke volumes about a missed opportunity Sunday.
The Boston Red Sox stormed into San Francisco Friday night, the weight of the Rafael Devers trade five days prior looming large with the longtime slugger in the opposing dugout.
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That night, Boston's offense scored its most runs in a game since Devers' departure, holding Devers hitless in return. But the opener proved the lone highlight of the weekend in an otherwise frustrating series for the Red Sox, one that culminated in a rough 9-5 loss to San Francisco on Sunday.
Manager Alex Cora and outfielder Jarren Duran were ejected in the eighth when Duran was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.
The sloppy play that has characterized much of the season for the Red Sox had dissipated of late, but reared its head again Sunday. Two key errors led to five unearned runs on the day. It marked the second time this year the Red Sox had allowed five or more unearned runs in a game, with six unearned runs on April 11 in Chicago their worst.
'We've got to play better defense,' Cora said. 'The whole weekend was kind of sloppy in that department.'
The Red Sox entered Sunday having won eight of their past 10 games with a chance to win their fifth straight series. They'd carried a business-as-usual approach since the massive trade that shocked the baseball world exactly one week ago. But after three games, they walked away with just one win, slouching back to 40-39.
Against one of the league's best lefty starters in Robbie Ray, the Red Sox battled early, knocking him out after five innings and taking advantage of the Giants' own mistakes.
But as they have too often this season, they let it slip away. The Giants took a 2-1 lead in the third when Duran and Nate Eaton, starting his first game for the Red Sox since being added to the roster following the Devers trade, converged in shallow left field and let a fly ball drop between them.
'It was just loud, I was calling for it, I don't think he heard me,' Duran said. 'He's a freak athlete. He got all the way out there, too. So it was just one of those things we haven't played together a lot.'
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In the seventh, after the Red Sox had pulled ahead 5-4 on a Ceddanne Rafaela solo homer, Romy Gonzalez, starting just his second game at second base, dropped a routine line drive that allowed the go-ahead run to score. The Giants put up four runs in the inning.
'We're major leaguers, that play has to be made 100 out of 100 times,' Gonzalez said.
David Hamilton, a stronger defender, sat Sunday with the left-hander Ray on the mound and Gonzalez's 1.020 OPS against lefties, needed in the lineup. Hamilton, meanwhile, had also made two miscues over the weekend at second. Gonzalez hit a solo homer off Ray in the fifth, but his error in the seventh let the game unravel. It highlighted the strains of an imperfect roster with many moving parts.
Boston's baserunning mistakes returned Sunday, too.
In the eighth, Duran led off with a shot down the right-field line and slid into second base, but came off the back for a millisecond and was tagged out. The play went under review, but the call stood. Duran argued and was thrown out. Cora charged out and was subsequently tossed too.
Alex Cora doubles down on the call that Jarren Duran was ruled out on 🎙️
"He [was] safe. Clearly." pic.twitter.com/EFVmVKehNW
— NESN (@NESN) June 22, 2025
Cora said he was more frustrated about a play earlier in the game when Abraham Toro was called out at home after a Rafaela double. As the ball came to the plate, Toro tried to jump around catcher Patrick Bailey and was called out for being out of the base path.
'My whole frustration at the end was more at that (Toro play) and obviously the first game, the check swings and all that,' Cora said. 'It is what it is. I hate to get thrown out, I hate it, but obviously I have to defend my player.'
Cora insisted it was one sloppy series in the midst of a good stretch, but the Red Sox have lost their benefit of the doubt and need to keep proving they can play cleaner baseball more consistently.
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More takeaways and notes from the weekend as the Red Sox head to Anaheim for three more games:
Another day, another rotation injury. Sunday, the Red Sox placed right-hander Hunter Dobbins on the injury list with a right elbow strain. The team recalled right-hander Richard Fitts.
Following Dobbins' start Friday against the Giants, in which he allowed five runs, four earned in four innings of work, Dobbins said he noticed a velocity drop to the low 90s.
'Nothing really felt right,' he said Friday. 'It kind of gets in your head when you look up at the velo board when you see 91 when you're expecting 96, so I'm going to see if it was something mechanical.
'You notice it, you kind of feel it, that kind of was the feeling I had,' he said. 'I knew I could generate it because it showed up a few times.'
Cora said after the game that Dobbins played catch just before Sunday's game and felt slightly better, but the team opted to not push him in his next start. Fitts is expected to start in Dobbins' place Wednesday.
Dobbins bounced back and forth between the Red Sox and Triple A Worcester over the first month of the season, first making a spot start for an injured Fitts (pectoral strain) and then entering the rotation more permanently when Walker Buehler landed on the IL with shoulder bursitis in early May.
In 12 games, 10 starts, Dobbins posted a 4.10 ERA.
Fitts started three games for the Red Sox at the start of the season, posting a 3.18 ERA, before missing six weeks with a pectoral strain then being optioned to Triple A Worcester.
Over the weekend, Cora also revealed right-hander Kutter Crawford, who made 30 starts last year for Boston but has yet to make a start this season, had another setback while rebabbing in Fort Myers, Fla.
Crawford began the year on the injury list with a right knee injury but over the course of the spring developed a wrist injury. He's flying back to Boston and will have tests on Monday.
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'The knee and the wrist, kind of like he wasn't able to generate velocity,' Crawford said. 'So that's a concern, a concern for him too, if he's trying to push something, then his shoulder comes into play. So shut him down. He'll be in Boston in the upcoming days, and we'll know more next week.'
Tanner Houck, who's been on the IL with a flexor pronator strain since mid May, is set for a second rehab start Tuesday with Worcester.
In addition to Crawford, Houck, Fitts, Dobbins and Buehler, the Red Sox also had starters Brayan Bello (shoulder strain) and Lucas Giolito (hamstring) miss time this season on the IL.
When the Red Sox optioned Campbell to Worcester on Friday, they did so with the intention of helping him slow things down.
Cora noted the purpose is not for Campbell to head back to Triple A and hit .500, but to work on fundamentals and on doing less.
With that in mind as the WooSox head on a road trip to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this week, the Red Sox are keeping Campbell behind in Worcester to get in extra work with the team's development staff, including director of hitting Jason Ochart, hitting coordinator John Soteropulos and field coordinator Andrew Wright.
'Be aggressive early in counts, recognize the fastballs, the different types of them,' Cora said of what Campbell will work on. 'We all know what he struggled with. So give him a little bit of a reset and then walk him through what we want. So that's the thought process. But he needs to play. I think at the end of the day, you gain experience playing nine innings and going through every situation.'
The plan is for Campbell to rejoin the WooSox in Scranton on Thursday or Friday.
In 67 games, the 23-year-old Campbell won Rookie of the Month in April, but hit just .159 with a .465 OPS after May 1.
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Reliever Jordan Hicks, acquired as part of the Devers trade, began a rehab assignment with Worcester on Sunday following a toe injury in early June.
Hicks had a rocky first rehab outing, allowing a single, a two-run homer, a single and a walk. He got two outs, but was lifted after 23 pitches, 10 strikes.
Cora suggested Hicks might be ready to join the Red Sox during their next homestand that begins Friday, but also noted they won't rush him since he hasn't pitched in three weeks.
Hicks had started and relieved this year for San Francisco, but the Red Sox will use him out of the bullpen.