The first six innings of the Red Sox’s Friday night tilt in Cincinnati featured a strong pitching battle, although each starter gave up his share of solo home runs to fuel scoring.
During the seventh inning, though, Boston’s mental mistakes unraveled it and allowed the Reds to establish a 5-2 lead that they never relinquished.
The Red Sox committed three errors on Friday, compared to zero by Cincinnati, and that proved to be the difference in the loss.
Kutter Crawford got the start on the bump for Boston, and went 6.1 innings before Alex Cora finally sat the workhorse.