It’s been a long series, and not the first one this year against the Rays. Nothing has ended well. Least of all this one, with the Rays cruising to a 4-1 to win to push the Sox back down to .500. It is what it is.
But at least this game started fast. The TL;DR on the first four innings is that things flew by on both sides. Brayan Bello struck out the side in the first — probably the hardest team to do that against, except maybe Miami, because Luis Arráez never strikes out — but the Red Sox promptly wasted a two-walk inning by Shane McClanahan, who’s merely probably the best non-Pablo Reyes pitcher in the American League.