Sunday looked like a better day for the White Sox. Then the eighth inning happened.
Sloppy defense, bad pitching and a key reliever leaving with an injury contributed to the Red Sox’ seven-run eighth in their 9-2 victory against the Sox. In front of the first sellout crowd of the season, the game ended up nearly as ugly as the Sox’ 15-2 loss Saturday.
‘‘I love that game because you’re playing against a championship-quality type of club,’’ Sox manager Rick Renteria said. ‘‘And now you can take this experience, and if you really remain focused on everything that’s going on, you realize everything matters. Every bit of that game mattered, every move and every play. You realize what it is to play on a big stage at home.’’
The Sox dropped the last three games of the four-game series to the defending World Series champion Red Sox. And despite right-hander Dylan Covey’s solid start (two runs in 4‰ innings) and Jose Abreu’s 154th career home run to tie Bill Melton for eighth in team history, the game had a sour ending for the Sox.
With one out in the eighth and Sox reliever Kelvin Herrera pitching in a 2-2 game, Rafael Devers drove a ball to the wall in left and took a wide turn past first base. After Nicky Delmonico got the ball in quickly, Tim Anderson’s throw behind Devers eluded Abreu. Devers then tried for second, and Abreu’s throw went into the outfield, allowing him to reach third.
‘‘That play was just an ugly play altogether, [but it] started with a great one by Nicky getting the ball in,’’ Renteria said. ‘‘Then we thought, ‘Great, we kept them to a single.’ And then it spiraled out of control, which led to that big inning there.’’
Anderson wasn’t in any mood to discuss the play.
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‘‘Did you watch?’’ he asked. ‘‘There ya go. There ya go. It’s baseball. Things happen. You guys [saw] what [happened], so I don’t think I need to touch on it.’’
After a single by Mitch Moreland broke the tie, the Red Sox loaded the bases loaded with two outs for Eduardo Nunez, whose roller down the third-base line stayed fair to drive in another run. After the play, Herrera left with stiffness in his lower back. He is listed as day-to-day.
Caleb Frare, who had been recalled from Class AAA Charlotte earlier in the day, then walked Andrew Benintendi to force in another run. Out went Frare and in came Juan Minaya, who also had come up from Charlotte earlier in the day. Xander Bogaerts greeted him with a grand slam to cap the inning.
The loss marked the end of an eventful 5-4 homestand that saw left-hander Carlos Rodon, rookie outfielder Eloy Jimenez and reliever Nate Jones go on the injured list and right-hander Ervin Santana get cut. There was also a squandered four-run lead against the Orioles, two walk-off victories and, finally, two disastrous games against the Red Sox.
‘‘We were hoping to have a good game today, maybe come out of it with a 6-3 homestand, as opposed to a 5-4 homestand,’’ Renteria said. ‘‘Still a winning homestand. We want to continue to play better baseball in the end. That’s a fact, and those young guys in there know that.’’
The Sox played some decent baseball against the Red Sox. But the nine-run third inning Saturday and the seven-run eighth Sunday cost them.
‘‘You start to see the teams that we’re playing,’’ Renteria said. ‘‘World champions, pretty good ballclub, very talented. And we were keeping up with them. But you want to keep up with them and surpass them through nine innings, not just six or seven innings. You want to play nine innings.’’
