The Red Sox will try to avoid a sweep in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale at Tropicana Field, with first pitch scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET and Jake Bennett expected to be called up from Worcester to start against the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen.
Boston dropped Tuesday’s game 4-3, managing six hits and no walks, and arrives at Tropicana Field with a 27-38 record while the Rays sit at 39-25. The loss left the Red Sox 6-14-2 in series play and 10-17 in day games, and it extended a scuffling stretch in which Boston has not produced more than seven hits in any of its past five games and has averaged 2.4 runs over that span.
Bennett’s recent numbers at Triple-A Worcester are strong: he is 3-2 with a 1.60 ERA in nine starts. He has two big league outings to his name — a May 1 debut in which he threw five innings of one-run ball in a win over the Astros, and a May 7 start against Tampa Bay in which he allowed four runs on six hits and two walks over 5 1/3 innings in an 8-4 loss. The Red Sox are banking on the left-hander’s Worcester form while acknowledging the sport’s harder facts against the Rays’ lineup.
Rasmussen countering for the Rays brings recent dominance. He threw seven innings of one-hit ball in a 6-0 win over the Marlins in his last outing and is 5-2 with a 3.00 ERA on the season. He has also pitched to a 1-1 mark and a 3.30 ERA in 10 games, including six starts, against Boston, a reminder of how familiar and effective he has been against the opposing lineup.
The friction facing the Red Sox is clear: the team’s offense has been muted through a calendar of games even when the pitching has kept contests close. “It’s incredibly frustrating,” Mickey Gasper said after Tuesday’s loss, adding, “We’re all trying to help the team win, and we’re knocking at the door every night.” That assessment fits with the raw numbers — six hits on Tuesday, no walks, and an offense averaging 2.4 runs across five games — and it puts extra pressure on Bennett to give Boston length and quality early.
For Bennett, the matchup is a straightforward test of adjustments. His Worcester run suggests he can handle big-league lineups, and his debut showed he can work deep into a game. But the Rays are a different animal: they beat him the last time they saw him, and Rasmussen’s recent one-hit outing reinforces how difficult it will be to string together runs against Tampa Bay’s staff and bullpen.
Practical details for the game: first pitch is at 1:10 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field, and the Red Sox will return to Boston after the finale, get Thursday off, and open a six-game homestand Friday against the Rangers. For Boston fans, Wednesday is the last chance of this trip to halt a sweep and head home with at least one win to build on.
What to watch when the ball is in the air: how long Bennett lasts and whether he limits the damage the way he did in his May 1 debut, and whether Rasmussen continues the one-hit form that has him at 5-2, 3.00 on the season. The series’ unanswered question is simple and immediate: can Jake Bennett contain a Rays lineup that has already seen him once and beaten him on May 7?
