Red Sox blow lead in extras and lose to Royals, 2-1, in 12 innings

It took until the top of the 11th inning, but the Red Sox were finally able to scratch across the game’s first run.

Yet as has become so often the case recently, the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead.

Garrett Whitlock blew his third save in his last four appearances, allowing Kansas City to tie the game in the bottom of the 11th before the Royals ultimately won, 2-1, on a walk-off single by Freddy Fermin in the 12th.

The loss dropped Boston (20-20) back to .500, and the Red Sox are also now 4-10 in one-run games with six straight losses.

Kansas City, meanwhile, has now won seven straight and 16 of its last 18 games.

Both starting pitchers were in full control throughout the first half of the game. Royals right-hander Michael Lorenzen retired the first 10 batters he faced and held the Red Sox scoreless with only two singles through the first five innings, and Red Sox rookie Hunter Dobbins held his ground, limiting Kansas City to a handful of singles.

It wasn’t until the bottom of the fifth where either team was able to apply some real pressure. With one out in the inning Royals outfielder Kyle Isbel hit a triple into the right-field gap, giving Kansas City a chance to take the lead with only a fly ball to the outfield.

Instead, Dobbins drew a weak ground ball to shortstop from Jonathan India, and Trevor Story’s throw home beat Isbel by a mile, catching the outfielder in a rundown. As if that wasn’t bad enough for Kansas City, once Connor Wong threw to Alex Bregman to tag Isbel out, the Red Sox third baseman then flung the ball over to second to gun down India. The result, a rare 6-2-5-4 double play to end the inning.

Boston’s first scoring chance came in the following inning, but while there wasn’t any dramatic baserunning blunder, the result was the same. Ceddanne Rafaela led off the inning with a double and Lorenzen later hit Bregman to put two men on with two outs, but Kristian Campbell struck out looking on a ball that appeared to be below the zone to end the inning.

Dobbins got more help from his defense in the sixth when Rafaela robbed Bobby Witt Jr. of at least a double by chasing down a deep fly ball to the warning track and making the grab right as he crashed into the wall. He finished out the 1-2-3 inning to wrap up his terrific day, posting six scoreless innings with five hits, no walks and six strikeouts on 81 pitches.

Dobbins has now posted a 2.78 ERA through his first four career MLB starts.

Despite the rookie’s low pitch count, Red Sox manager Alex Cora opted for reliever Greg Weissert in the seventh inning to avoid having Dobbins face Maikel Garcia (.326, .899 OPS) a third time. Weissert wound up walking both Garcia and Michael Massey to put two men on with no outs, but he was able to draw a double play from Mark Canha and a flyout from Fermin to strand the go-ahead run at third.

Wilyer Abreu made a great running catch on a fast sinking liner to preserve the scoreless tie.

Lorenzen came out of the game after seven scoreless innings having allowed only three hits, no walks and a hit batsman. He gave way for former Red Sox reliever John Schreiber, who has been excellent for Kansas City with a 1.76 ERA in 15 appearances coming into Friday. Schreiber allowed a single to Wong and got two outs, and then Kansas City opted for Lucas Erceg to face Rafael Devers, and he drew a groundout to end the eighth.

The Red Sox found themselves on their back heels again in the eighth when India doubled against left-hander Justin Wilson. With first base open Cora opted to intentionally walk Witt, and after Wilson struck out Vinnie Pasquantino he summoned Justin Slaten, who has struggled mightily over the past two weeks.

Slaten was prominently involved in blowing back-to-back leads in Toronto, and then on Sunday against Minnesota he gave up the lead again in the club’s eventual loss. But his last time out on Thursday he bounced back with 1 1/3 scoreless innings, and Friday he came through again, drawing a groundout from Salvador Perez to end the threat before then pitching a scoreless ninth to send the game to extra innings.

Both Boston and Kansas City went to their closers in the 10th, and after Carlos Estevez sent the Red Sox down 1-2-3 in the top of the frame, Aroldis Chapman returned the favor and kept his team in the game.

The Red Sox finally broke through in the top of the 11th. Duran moved the extra-innings ghost runner Rafaela over to third with a ground out, and then Devers brought Rafaela home with an infield grounder that was initially ruled a single but overturned as a groundout on review.

But Whitlock couldn’t finish the job. The right-hander’s first pitch went to the backstop and allowed the ghost runner to reach third, and then surrendered a leadoff walk to Witt and a game-tying single by Pasquantino. That put two men on with no outs, but Whitlock was at least able to buckle down and strike out the next two batters he faced. Then Cora went to Brennan Bernardino for a lefty-on-lefty matchup, and he drew a Massey pop-out to send the game to the 12th.

When the Red Sox couldn’t score the writing was on the wall, and the Royals finally put the game away when Cavan Biggio moved the ghost runner to third with a bunt and Fermin ended it with an RBI single.