Kutter Crawford had been struggling. Zack Wheeler almost never does.

The Red Sox right-hander had allowed at least four earned runs in each of his last three starts, ballooning his ERA from 2.17 to 3.51. The Phillies ace entered the game having allowed no more than three earned runs in 11 of his 13 starts, with a 2.23 ERA on the season.

But Crawford wasn’t the reason the Red Sox fell to the Phillies 4-1 in their series opener on Tuesday. Chalk that up to the old unreliables: the defense and the lineup.

Through the first three innings, Crawford had no problem squaring up with the Phillies ace. Both starters allowed an earned run in the first inning, got the opposing lineup to waste a leadoff single in the second, and pitched a 1-2-3 third. And by the end of their respective starts, each had thrown exactly 88 pitches.

Crawford’s pitch count sat at 29 when he took the mound for the fourth inning, but it would more than double by the end of the frame, as Boston’s defensive woes resurfaced. He issued a leadoff walk to Bryce Harper, then gave up a one-out double to Bryson Stott to put two Phillies in scoring position. After Crawford then got his second strikeout of the inning, a missed-catch error by Dom Smith allowed David Dahl to reach first and two unearned runs to score.

“He dropped it,” Alex Cora said. “You ask Dom, and he’ll tell you he just dropped it.”

The first baseman, however, said it wasn’t that simple.

“Tough play at the line, not trying to get my arm knocked off, not trying to go on the injured list,” Smith said. “It’s very unfortunate. Something that I probably make more often than not.”

“You can rewatch the replay, the ball is in the baseline and I’m reaching to make the play while not getting injured and getting hit, so it’s not just a routine play,” he reiterated, sounding frustrated.

It was Boston’s second error of the game; Stott had led off the top of the second with a single and advanced to second on a fielding error by Rob Refsnyder.

The league average unearned-run rate is 9%. Boston’s is 16.7%. That, and their 45 unearned runs allowed, are the worst marks in the Majors. Worth plus-9 Outs Above Average – tied for fifth-best in the Majors – the Phillies boast one of baseball’s strongest defensive infields; the Red Sox infield is minus-16 OAA, the second-worst mark in the Majors, behind the Angels and Marlins (both minus-18). Every other club is minus-11 or better.

“I want to be elite, the best defensive team in the big-leagues. That’s what we’re striving for,” the Red Sox manager said emphatically. “We’re gonna go out there and bust our ass and work hard at it. Sometimes it’s gonna happen, sometimes it’s not gonna happen, but we’re gonna work. We’re gonna work harder than in the past, and we’re gonna keep working hard.”

“When we make the routine plays, we’re fine, and today we just missed one and it cost us,” Cora added, “but I’m not upset at the guys, I’m not upset at the effort, it’s just the reality of who we are.”

Despite having to battle his own team’s defense and one of the most powerful lineups in baseball, Crawford held his own through his six innings.

With one notable exception. It was Kyle Schwarber’s first game back at Fenway since the 2021 ALCS, and he immediately reminded the Red Sox why they should’ve kept him. He sent the first pitch of the game 444 feet into the center-field bleachers at 112.4 mph for an immediate 1-0 Phillies lead. He struck out swinging in his second at-bat, then led off the fifth with another home run, increasing the Phillies’ lead to 4-1.

Those ‘Schwarbombs’ were the only earned runs the Phillies got off Crawford, whose night was done after six innings, six hits, two earned runs and two unearned, one walk, and a season-high eight strikeouts.

“He threw the ball well,” Cora said. “Like I always say, we’re gonna go as long as our defense goes. …(Without the error) It’s a 2-1 game with a chance to probably win the game, but we put ourselves in a bad spot. But he was good.”

As frustrated as the Red Sox are with how many errors they’ve racked up, the Phillies would’ve had enough to win without the unearned runs, because Boston only collected four hits and left three men on base.

“We did a good job right away. Shoot the ball the other way twice, we score one,” Cora said.  “And then after that, he was very efficient with great stuff.”

When Jarren Duran and David Hamilton began the bottom of the first with a single and double and Duran scored the tying run on Refsnyder’s sacrifice fly, it looked like the Red Sox might have Wheeler’s number. But after Connor Wong’s leadoff single in the second, Boston didn’t collect another hit until their final frame. Wheeler went seven innings – extending his season total to a National League-leading 87.2 – and allowed one earned run on three hits, one walk, and struck out four.

After allowing three hits over the first two innings, he didn’t allow another to the remaining 17 batters he faced. He’s made 11 quality starts – this being his fifth in a row – and received a career-long eight consecutive win decisions.

“He’s one of the best in the big-leagues. For me, in my book, he’s the best,” Cora said.

Smith, who’d been Wheeler’s teammate on the New York Mets and then his opponent when the righty signed with the Phillies before the 2020 season, was no stranger to performances such as this one.

“He’s one of the best pitchers in the game, I think he’s proven that year-in and year-out,” Smith concurred. “He comes in, he throws kinda hard, and he throws three different fastballs… Four-seamers, sinkers, cutters, big curveball, sweeper, and the splitter, so he makes it really tough when he has that repertoire and he’s throwing strikes and he’s working ahead.”

With a one-out single off José Alvarado in the bottom of the ninth, Hamilton became the team’s first – and ultimately, only – Red Sox player with a multi-hit game and the team’s first baserunner since Masataka Yoshida’s two-out walk in the fourth. He quickly advanced to third on a wild pitch and error by the catcher, only to be stranded as Rafael Devers struck out swinging to complete the loss.

The Red Sox are 33-34. They’ve already fallen to or clawed their way back up to .500 16 times this season. Will the 17th time be the charm?