BOSTON — If the Red Sox had held the lead and emerged victorious on Wednesday night, the focal point would have been Tanner Houck grinding without his best stuff and throwing a career-high 112 pitches over 5 2/3 innings and again finding a way to keep the opposition at bay.
Instead, it became about other things in a 4-3 loss to the Rays that left Boston needing a win on Thursday to salvage a split of this four-game series and a winning record on this seven-game homestand.
It was about two errors that led to a pair of unearned runs.
It was about an offense that has struggled to score for most of the last two weeks. In a 4-8 stretch that started on May 2, the Boston bats have scored three runs or less in all eight of the defeats, and two or less in six of those losses.
Here is a closer look at key developments from Wednesda
