DETROIT — Speaking about the challenge that lay ahead of his Red Sox when they’d arrive in Detroit before the club’s series with the Tigers began, manager Alex Cora went out of his way to compliment fellow Puerto Rico Javier Baéz on his recent resurgence and talk about how much it impacted Detroit’s hot start to 2025.
If he only knew.
Baéz, not once, but twice hit three-run homers that crushed the Red Sox in what was their worst loss of the season Tuesday night. Boston’s bullpen blew three leads — in the sixth, 10th and 11th — to give away a back-and-forth, dramatic game that ended in lightning-fast fashion when Baéz walked off Greg Weissert three pitches into the frame and turned a 9-7 Red Sox lead into a 10-9 Tigers victory.
“Offensively, we kept pushing. On the mound, we didn’t do a good job against the bottom of the lineup,” Cora said. “That’s the bottom line.
“We‘ve just got to be better. We‘ve just got to execute pitches.”
Boston’s bullpen, which entered Tuesday having experienced its fair share of struggles throughout May, coughed up leads as fast as the club’s offense could get them. After a two-spot spurred by the bottom of Boston’s lineup put the Sox up, 4-3, Garrett Whitlock entered in an effort to preserve the lead. As has been the case in four of his last five games, Whitlock — who owns a 10.80 ERA in five outings dating back to April 30 — couldn’t do it.
Whitlock issued a leadoff walk, then after two strikeouts (and a wild pitch), hit No. 8 hitter Jace Jung with a slider that bounced before it nicked his foot. It took two pitches for Baéz to wait back on a Whitlock slider and demolish it over the left field fence to put Detroit up, 6-4.
“I didn’t throw fastballs for strikes so I’m pretty pissed at myself for that,” Whitlock explained. “Put two guys on because of it, then Javy being smart probably was sitting for a slider because I couldn’t throw a fastball for a strike. He didn’t miss it. That was terrible by me and I’ve got to be better than that.
“It feels awful. It was just really bad today. Got brought in to do a job and didn’t do it. They basically could eliminate a pitch today because I didn’t have it. When that’s one of my main strengths and I don’t have it, it’s easy to hit me.”
The Red Sox tied things in an unlikely way in the eighth when David Hamilton took Tommy Kahnle deep for a two-run, game-tying homer. Extra-innings brought the Red Sox scratching a run across on a Ceddanne Rafaela groundout that made it 7-6 in the top of the 10th. Weissert — one of two remaining Red Sox relievers who were available — was tasked with closing things out.
Two quick outs meant little with ghost runner Zach McKinstry on second base, and Weissert paid the price when Trey Sweeney grounded one through the right side to knot it up again, this time at 7-7.
“It was just a changeup I left over the plate,” Weissert said. “It’s gotta be down. He just put a decent swing on it and put it through the four-hole.”
Minutes later, Kristian Campbell, breaking out of a 3-for-38 slump at the plate, became the momentary hero for the Red Sox when he hit a two-run, opposite-field homer off Beau Brieske. But even a two-run, 11th-inning lead wasn’t safe on this night. Jung singled on Weissert’s second pitch of the inning, putting men at the corners. Then, Baéz got a similar pitch to the one he received from Whitlock and sent Tigers fans home in a frenzy.
Three bad pitches, three major punishments for the Red Sox.
“He chases a lot but that’s the risk you run with that pitch,” Weissert said. “He hammers in-zone spin. It’s unacceptable.”
Few Red Sox relievers have been immune to crushing blow-ups so far this month. On Tuesday, it was Weissert who paid the ultimate price, blowing the game twice and taking the loss.
“That’s what we‘re here for,” he said. “That’s a situation I want to be in. To not execute it sucks. It feels terrible, especially after the two-run homer to take the lead. I have to be better.
“You tie the game up late in the game and take the lead twice and I can’t put the button on it. It feels like (expletive).”
Forty-four games into the season, Cora is still looking for an effective back-end bullpen mix. The individual performances of pitchers like Aroldis Chapman, Brennan Bernardino, Justin Wilson, Liam Hendriks (recently), Justin Slaten (for the most part) and Weissert (before Tuesday) have been good. Yet the Red Sox still lead baseball with 11 saves.
There was no sugarcoating how crushing Tuesday’s defeat was, even if Cora enjoys a close relationship with Baéz.
“He’s hitting for average, he’s hitting for power,” Cora said. “This guy, at one point, was one of the best players in baseball. They lost him for a while there. When he signed here, he struggled, then he got hurt. He had surgery and it looks like he’s back.
“It’s a hanging slider to Javy Baéz in the zone. If you’re gonna spin the ball to him, you better expand. We didn’t and we paid the price.”
