It’s never a good idea to waste a bases-loaded opportunity.

The Red Sox are painfully aware of that, as they entered Sunday’s series finale in Tampa hitting .143 (6 for 42) in such situations over their last 38 games – including 0 for 2 in Friday’s series opener – with just one extra base hit, one walk, two hit-by-pitches, and three sacrifice flies. (A far cry from their .586 average (17 for 29) in bases-loaded situations in the previous 54 games.)

Tack on another left-’em-loaded in Sunday’s first inning. And another in the fifth.

In total, the Red Sox left 10 men on base in a frustrating final meeting with their American League East rivals, who bested them 7-3 to avoid being swept at Steinbrenner Field.

The Rays punished them immediately. Eight Tampa Bay batters forced Connelly Early to throw 31 pitches in the bottom of the first, and they took a 3-0 lead.

Pitching with Chandler Simpson on first with a leadoff single seemed to rattle Early, who issued back-to-back walks to Yandy Díaz and Junior Caminero before recording an out in the bottom of the first. After striking out Brandon Lowe – no relation to Red Sox first baseman Nathaniel Lowe – Early gave up a two-run double to Christopher Morel. A fielder’s choice and throwing error by Alex Bregman scored Tampa’s third run before Early fanned Tristan Gray and induced an Everson Pereira ground-out to finally end the frame.

“He didn’t have his secondary pitches,” manager Alex Cora told reporters of Early’s first inning.

Despite pitching in a deficit for the first time in his major league career, Early rebounded from those initial struggles. The Rays did not score against him again, and he faced the minimum in each of his three remaining frames. He matched Rays starter Joe Boyle with 13 swing-and-misses.

Boston Red Sox’s Connelly Early pitches to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

Boyle fanned nine over 4.1 innings, but he also yielded four hits and four walks. He exited weighed down by just one earned run, thanks to a Red Sox lineup that threw away scoring opportunities as quickly as they created them.

In the fourth, an aggressive send by third-base coach Kyle Hudson propelled Romy Gonzalez from first to home on a Nathaniel Lowe double. Morel’s throw from left ensured that catcher Nick Fortes was waiting with time to spare as Gonzalez raced down the third base line.

“It was a decision that was made,” Cora said. “I’m never gonna second-guess him.”

Jarren Duran led off the fifth with a walk, then found himself stranded in no-man’s land in between first and second and was easily tagged out. Thus, where they could have plated at least one run, the Red Sox instead loaded the bases on Bregman’s walk and back-to-back singles by Masataka Yoshida and Gonzalez, and left them that way; recreating the end of the first inning, Lowe struck out swinging to squander the situation.

Brandon Lowe led off the bottom of the sixth with a no-doubter off Steven Matz, which stretched Tampa’s lead back to three.

The Red Sox made it interesting in the top of the seventh, but the big hit eluded them once more. Facing Bryan Baker, they pulled within a run thanks to three consecutive singles by Duran, Trevor Story, and Bregman, whose knock plated Boston’s second run. Gonzalez’s one-out single drove in the third.

Batting with one out and only two-thirds of the bases occupied, Lowe’s third strikeout of the night didn’t end the seventh, but it did increase his left-on-base total to eight. Moments later, Ceddanne Rafaela’s pop-up increased the team’s total to 10.

“We didn’t put the ball in play,” Cora said. “It was one of those tough nights, you felt like you were right in the game but it didn’t happen.

And so, the Red Sox only had themselves to blame when, in the bottom of the eighth, the Rays did what the Boston bats could not. Facing Zack Kelly for two at-bats after his 1-2-3 seventh, and then rookie left-hander Payton Tolle, five Tampa Bay batters reached to begin the inning. By the end of the frame, the Rays were in front by four runs.

By then, they didn’t have to worry about the Boston bats; they went in order in the eighth and ninth to complete a loss that was, from start to finish, a self-defeat.

The Red Sox tallied 10 hits, one more than their hosts, and were gifted five walks. Yet they struck out 14 times and went 4 for 11 with runners in scoring position. Wilyer Abreu, making his long-awaited return from a calf injury, struck out four times as the designated hitter du jour. They are 22-41 when they strike out at least 10 times.

Facts and figures

The Red Sox are 85-71, but 4-6 in their last 10 games. After a final off-day on Monday, their remaining six games of the regular season are against the Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers.

After going 8-2 in ten series between June 30 and Aug. 6, the Red Sox are 6-7 in their last 13. They have not, however, managed to sweep an opponent since Aug. 28 in Baltimore.

In bases-loaded situations since Aug. 9, the Red Sox are batting .136 with a .339 OPS, one extra-base hit, one walk, and 19 strikeouts; since Aug. 25, that batting average is a minuscule .095.

Wild Card watch

The Red Sox hold the second AL Wild Card, with a one-game lead over both Houston and Cleveland. Yet with tiebreakers over both teams, it’s essentially a two-game lead.

The Blue Jays and New York Yankees both won on Sunday, while the Miami Marlins defeated the Texas Rangers 4-2. (The Red Sox also own the tie-breaker against the Yankees.)

Though the Minnesota Twins managed to snap Cleveland’s 10-game win streak, the Braves defeated the Tigers 6-2. The Tigers’ once-enormous lead over the rest of the AL Central is now just one game.