Red Sox reactions: On raw night, Red Sox bats left cold in loss to Toronto (2025)

BOSTON — Instant reactions from the Red Sox’ 6-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, which snapped Boston’s five-game winning streak.

1) You’ll recall that the Red Sox stumbled out of the gate when they couldn’t buy a hit with runners in scoring position. After leaving Texas, that issue was largely solved and over the weekend, the lineup looked unstoppable at times, totaling 36 runs in the three-game sweep of St. Louis. But old habits returned Monday, with the Sox limited to a single run despite having some chances. There were 0-for-9 with RISP until Triston Casas slammed a run-scoring single off the wall in the eighth and twice failed to take advantage of opportunities after putting the leadoff man on base. The worst squander came in the seventh when a leadoff walk to Casas and a single by Trevor Story gave the Sox two on and no out. But that was the end of the threat, as Toronto starter Jose Berrios dug in and retired Wilyer Abreu, Carlos Narvaez and David Hamilton, stranding two. It happened again in the eighth, when, after the hit by Casas, the Sox still managed to leave two more baserunners on base as Trevor Story took a called third strike.

2) Starter Richard Fitts again turned in a decent outing, giving the Red Sox six innings while allowing three runs. Most nights, teams will take that as he became just the third Red Sox pitcher in the last 18 seasons to go at least five innings in each of his first seven career starts. But Fitts wasn’t nearly as sharp as his last turn, when he was far more efficient and was done in by two homers. On Monday, Fitts issued four walks, forcing him to repeatedly pitch out of trouble. Twice, he helped himself with double play balls, but the sheer volume of baserunners (10 over his six innings) worked against him. Wonder if there was some rust after seven days of rest since his first start?

3) It’s too soon to know how serious the injury is, but it’s never a good sign when a catcher has to come out of a game. That’s what happened to Connor Wong. Wong was struck in the left (catching) hand in the top of the first by the swing of George Springer and charged with catcher’s interference. Wong was attended to for several months by a member of the training staff and managed to finish the inning. But when it came time for the Sox to take the field in the top of the second, Wong was replaced by Narvaez. If Wong needs an IL stint, the logical move would be for the Sox to promote Blake Sabol from Worcester, since he’s currently the only other catcher on the team’s 40-man roster.

4) A big problem Monday night was the Red Sox’ inability to get out of jams with two outs. Of the six runs scored by the Blue Jays, five came after the Sox had managed to record two outs.

5) Following slow starts, the top three in the Red Sox batting order have come around, with Rafael Devers currently on a torrid streak and Alex Bregman earning Player of the Week honors Monday for his hot bat. But it hasn’t trickled down to the cleanup hitter, Casas, who started the night hitting just .167 and was second on the team in strikeouts. After two groundouts a and a walk in his first three plate appearances, Casas delivered a run-scoring single off The Wall in the eighth. Maybe that was the hit that Casas needed to get going.

6) Even as Ceddanne Rafaela is taking some time to get untracked at the plate, he continues to shine in the field. On Monday night, it didn’t take long for him to turn his first gem. On the first hitter of the game, Bo Bichette drove a pitch to right, but Rafaela, in center, sprinted over and tracked the ball with a sliding catch in front of the home bullpen wall.

7) The Red Sox got off to a clean start in the field this season, committing just one error in the first four games — snd even that wasn’t an actual error, but a case of catcher’s interference on the part of Narvaez. But of lately, it’s been sloppier in the field. The Sox committed two errors Monday night, marking the third straight day in which they’d committed multiple errors; they also made two in Friday’s opener and two Sunday night in the nightcap of the doubleheader.

8) The four-game series continues Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. with a pitching matchup of LHP Garrett Crochet (1-0, 1.38) vs. lefty Easton Lucas (1-0, 0.00 ERA). The outing will mark Crochet’s first start at home after his first two outings of the season came on the road. Crochet got a huge ovation when the entire team was introduced prior to the home opener and his outings at Fenway are likely to be events.