The Red Sox offense showed little fight against Rays starter Drew Rasmussen, who dominated Boston’s lineup over seven innings. The Sox mounted a late comeback attempt, but it fell short as they dropped a 7-5 decision on Wednesday, suffering their fourth series sweep of the season.
With the loss, the Red Sox fell to a season-worst 12 games under .500 at 27-39. Boston is now 17-18 on the road, 7-28 when its opponent scores first, and finished its road trip against the Yankees and Rays with a disappointing 1-4 record.
Boston’s top four hitters Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Willson Contreras went a combined 0-for-11 with 11 strikeouts against Rasmussen.
Duran, Rafaela, and Abreu were particularly overmatched, going 0-for-9 with nine strikeouts through their first three trips to the plate. According to NESN, Wednesday marked the first time since at least 1901 that a team’s top three hitters struck out in each of their first three plate appearances.
“He had good stuff,” Chad Tracy said of Rasmussen. “We definitely went out of the zone a little much, we’ve got to rein that in. But he was very effective.”
Rasmussen was dominant from the outset, piling up a career-high 13 strikeouts across seven scoreless innings. He faced the minimum through four frames, striking out eight while needing just 44 pitches. By then, he had already generated 14 swinging strikes, matching his season high.
According to Baseball Savant, Rasmussen finished with 20 whiffs, tied for the second-highest total of his career behind the 22 he recorded against the Yankees on Sept. 9, 2022. He allowed just four base runners all afternoon, two singles, a walk, and a hit batter.
Boston finally broke through in the eighth with a four-run rally. Caleb Durbin led off the inning with a solo homer, his second of the season and first that didn’t come against a position player, helping the Red Sox avoid a shutout. Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with a walk, and Duran snapped the top of the lineup’s prolonged slump with a single, putting runners at the corners with one out.
Duran has struggled in the month of June, going 5-for-33 (.152) with one extra-base hit and 14 strikeouts. He finished the three-game series against Tampa Bay just 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts.
Rafaela, who has developed a flair for the dramatic, crushed a three-run homer to left field off former Red Sox left-hander Steven Matz in the eighth inning, but Boston couldn’t draw any closer. Abreu and Contreras followed with groundouts to end the threat.
Durbin struck again in the ninth, launching his second solo homer of the game with two outs to record the first multi-homer performance of his major league career. The Red Sox kept the inning alive when Kiner-Falefa drew a walk after a successful ABS challenge overturned what would have been a game-ending strikeout. But Rays left-hander Garrett Cleavinger slammed the door, striking out Andruw Monasterio to secure the sweep.
“We did a good job, that’s what you’re supposed to do there to get yourself back in the game,” Tracy told reporters postgame. “We’ve done that a lot and it hurts more because you get back to within a run and you feel like you’re there and you’re one more swing away but we did a good job getting ourselves back within a run.”
Prior to the game, Boston recalled left-hander Jake Bennett from Triple-A Worcester to take Brayan Bello’s spot in the rotation.
Bennett gave the Red Sox five innings, allowing four runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out four. He threw 52 of his 73 pitches for strikes (71.2 percent) and generated 10 whiffs, according to Baseball Savant.
Jake Bennett was better than his line indicated. Doesn’t matter much with this offense.
5 IP – 73 P/52 S
7 H
4 ER/R
4 K
1 BB
10 Whiffs
Some rough luck in the 5th. IKF not being able to corral a ball, comebacker off Bennett. Leaned heavy on the 4SFB, despite it getting hit hard. pic.twitter.com/X3hBt1Dc54
— Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) June 10, 2026
The Rays grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third inning after Nick Fortes doubled, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Cedric Mullins, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Taylor Walls.
Tampa Bay broke the game open in the fifth. Fortes led off with his second double of the night, Walls followed with a single, and Yandy Díaz drove in a run with an RBI single. Austin Slater added an RBI double before Junior Caminero was intentionally walked to load the bases. Ryan Vilade then capped the rally with a sacrifice fly, extending the Rays’ lead to 4-0.
The Rays added another run in the sixth when Díaz delivered his second RBI single of the game, making it 5-0.
Any hopes of a comeback took another hit in the eighth when Justin Slaten surrendered a two-run homer that effectively put the game out of reach.
The loss dropped the Red Sox to 1-33 when trailing after seven innings and 0-36 when trailing after eight.
“We need wins right now, we know that, they know that,” Tracy said. “I’ve said before there’s no consolation prizes but you like to see when your guys don’t just cash it in, they keep fighting.”
Boston will have an off day Thursday before returning to Fenway Park for a three-game weekend series against the Rangers beginning Friday. Right-hander Sonny Gray (7-1, 3.20 ERA) is expected to start for the Red Sox. Texas has yet to announce its starter.
