Red Sox losing streak hits nine games after 15-inning walk-off loss to Rays - MLB

The defending World Series champions are having a rough go of it lately. They entered Saturday’s game against the Rays having lost eight consecutive games, including Friday’s brutal 1-0 walk-off loss to the Rays. It got worse on Saturday, as the Red Sox jumped out to an early 5-0 lead against David Price, but watched that lead slip away, eventually becoming a 5-5 tie that would last into the 15th inning.

Against reliever Andrew Miller in his first inning of work, the Rays put runners on first and second with no outs on a James Loney single to center, and a bunt single by Brandon Guyer, which moved pinch-runner Cole Figueroa to second base. On a 1-2 count, Desmond Jennings hit a weak chopper back to the mound which appeared to be an easy 1-4-3 double play, or at least a 1-4 putout. Instead, Miller’s throw missed the mark and bounced into center field, allowing Figueroa to score the winning run.

For a team that has been running as bad as the Red Sox have, it really doesn’t get any more brutal than that.

Watch the walk-off loss:

[mlbvideo id=”33134603″ width=”600″ height=”336″ /]

The Red Sox are now 20-28, seven games behind the first-place Blue Jays in the AL East. Their -24 run differential is, at the moment, tied with the Rangers for the second-worst in the American League.

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Roger Clemens will be an analyst for ESPN when the defending World Series champion Houston Astros host the Chicago White Sox on opening day.

Clemens made four appearances on last year’s KayRod Cast with Michael Kay and Alex Rodriguez. He will be stepping in on March 30 for David Cone, who will be doing the New York Yankees opener against the San Francisco Giants on YES Network.

“Roger has been sort of a friend of ours for the last year, so to speak, he’s in. He’s been engaged, knowledgeable and really present,” said ESPN Vice President of Production Phil Orlins. “You know, whatever past may be, he’s still tremendously engaged and he really brought that every time he was with us.”

Clemens was a seven-time Cy Young winner but his career after baseball has been tainted by allegations of performance-enhancing drug use. He is a Houston native and pitched for the Astros for three seasons.

Orlins said that with the rules changes and pitch clock, it is important to have a pitcher in the booth with Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez.

“We don’t feel like we have to have the dynamic of Eduardo with a pitcher, but we certainly think that works. Throw in the added factor of rule changes and it is better to have a batter-pitcher perspective,” Orlins said.

Orlins did not say if this would open the door for future opportunities for Clemens as an ESPN analyst.