Sean Newcomb wasn’t especially sharp, but he was able to avoid disaster through the early innings of Wednesday’s start despite a lot of Seattle Mariners traffic.

But the Red Sox left-hander couldn’t walk the tightrope for his entire outing, and eventually when he stumbled there was no safety net to catch him.

Newcomb allowed a three-run home run to J.P Crawford in the top of the fourth, which wound up being the decisive blow in Boston’s 8-5 loss to Seattle. The Red Sox bats didn’t provide much support, collectively managing just five hits against Mariners starter Emerson Hancock, and the Mariners tacked on four runs against the Boston bullpen to put the game out of reach.

Triston Casas hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth to put the Red Sox back within striking distance, but by that point the club had too much ground to make up.

Seattle took a 1-0 lead on a Mitch Garver RBI single in the top of the first but stranded two men after Newcomb struck out Donovan Solano to end the inning. Then in the second Newcomb gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases with no outs, but the Middleborough native was able to escape the jam unscathed by drawing a double play and striking out Mariners superstar Julio Rodriguez.

But when Newcomb gave up a pair of singles to lead off the top of the fourth, Crawford made him pay with a towering shot into the Red Sox bullpen that made it 4-0 Seattle.

Newcomb eventually finished five innings, allowing the four runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out eight.

Boston got a run back in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single by Romy Gonzalez and then another in the fifth on a Rafael Devers RBI groundout, but Hancock held his ground otherwise. The 25-year-old allowed just the two runs over six innings on five hits, two walks and seven strikeouts.

Hancock also benefitted from some slick fielding from his infielders, particularly third baseman Ben Williamson, who made an outrageously difficult play in the fifth look easy when he fielded a ball on one hop along the third base line, dodged the baserunner at third and threw out Alex Bregman with ease.

Ben Williamson can flash that leather pic.twitter.com/M5m3WR5QWD

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 24, 2025

Red Sox reliever Brennan Bernardino didn’t help his own cause in the sixth, first walking Leo Rivas and then with two outs mishandling and throwing away a chopper in front of the mound by Dylan Moore that should have ended the inning. Bernardino was charged with two errors on the play, which also scored Rivas, and Moore later scored himself on a Julio Rodriguez RBI single that pushed the Mariners lead back to four.

Seattle scored twice more in the seventh against Josh Winckowski on RBI singles by Williamson and Crawford to make it 8-2.

The errors by Bernardino and Winckowski’s runs proved particularly costly when Casas got a hold of a two-out, 0-2 fastball in the eighth and sent it into the right field stands for a three-run bomb. It marked Casas’ second straight game with a home run and gave Boston 10 straight games with a home run. That’s the second longest streak in the American League, second only to Seattle, who extended their own league-best streak to 12 games on Wednesday.

Though he was rocky to start, Winckowski may end up having one of the most important appearances of the week for the Red Sox, throwing 80 pitches over the last three innings to preserve the rest of the Boston bullpen for Thursday’s series finale and beyond.

Boston (14-12) will look to bounce back and win the series in Thursday’s finale. Garrett Crochet will take the mound for the 1:35 p.m. first pitch.