Red Sox 8-16 at Fenway Park this season after sloppy Saturday loss to Twins

Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald on May 23, 2026

Published in Baseball

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Comeback kids these 2026 Boston Red Sox are not.

Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins marked the 26th game in which their opponent scored first. The Red Sox have only won five of them.

The Red Sox have largely been able to hang their baseball caps on pitching and defense as their offense has struggled in the early months of the season, but Saturday was a struggle from the word ‘Go.’

Boston deployed left-hander Jovani Moran as an opener ahead of embattled right-hander Brayan Bello for the third time this month, and like the first time (May 5 at Tigers) he opened with a messy first inning in which the opponent scored two runs right away. Byron Buxton and Trevor Larnach greeted Morán with back-to-back singles and they quickly touched home on Austin Martin’s RBI double and Josh Bell’s sacrifice fly.

Whereas the Red Sox had a 3-0 lead before Morán took the mound that night in Detroit, his Saturday performance put them behind.

The Twins had ample opportunity to turn Saturday into a blowout. They collected 12 hits, and reached double-digits before the end of the fifth inning, but were 3 for 12 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on bases, including bases loaded in the third.

The Red Sox lineup created few opportunities to even pull close. They managed five hits – though they also drew six walks – and struck out 11 times. They were 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.

Bello pitched five innings without allowing an earned run, but the Twins tallied eight hits, a walk and scored a pair of unearned runs during his outing.

Twins starter Taj Bradley needed 73 pitches (48 for strikes) to complete five frames of one-run ball. He allowed three hits, walked two, and struck out seven. The Red Sox were 1 for 3 with runners in scoring position and left two men on base during his innings.

Bradley faced the minimum in the first three innings. The bottom of the second was the 2026 Red Sox offense in a nutshell. Bradley issued a four-pitch leadoff walk to first baseman Willson Contreras, then struck out Ceddanne Rafaela and got Nick Sogard to ground into a first-pitch double play to end the inning.

Rafaela’s RBI double put Boston on the board in the fourth, but Contreras ran through the third-base coach’s stop sign and Twins catcher Victor Caratini was kneeling at home plate waiting to apply the tag as he ran down the line.

Caratini appeared to take issue with Contreras’ decision to run, rather than slide feet-first into home. What began as a brief conversation quickly turned into a benches- and bullpen-clearing scrum. Umpires issued warnings to both dugouts before the game resumed.

Things became sloppier from there. Bello allowed back-to-back singles to Larnach and Martin to begin the fifth, and Contreras’ first error of the year allowed Josh Bell to reach to load the bases.

The runners held as Kody Clemens flew out to left, but Larnach broke for home as Caratini flew out to Wilyer Abreu in right. Abreu gunned to Connor Wong, who swung his arm high to apply the tag, and Larnach’s outstretched arm slid safely into home before Wong’s mitt made contact with his helmet.

The Red Sox challenged, but the call was upheld, and Arcia’s subsequent single plated run No. 4 before Bello could finish the fifth.

Rookie relievers Tyler Samaniego and Ryan Watson pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively while their Red Sox teammates went quietly in the bottom halves.

Boston entered the ninth 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position, with five men left on base. Andrew Morris gave up a single to Contreras and walked Rafaela to begin the inning. Masataka Yoshida’s pinch-hit force-out advanced Contreras to third, back-to-back two-out walks by Wong and Isiah Kiner-Falefa loaded the bases and forced in a run.

The Twins brought in Taylor Rogers for a lefty-on-lefty battle against Jarren Duran. The Red Sox leadoff man was called out looking at Rogers’ sixth pitch, a high sweeper. Duran immediately tapped his helmet to request an ABS challenge, but the bottom of the baseball had connected with the very top of the strike zone.