Red Sox allow ten straight unanswered runs in embarrassing loss to Astros

BOSTON — With their season on the line and fading playoff hopes dependent on a series win, the Red Sox kicked off a hugely important series Monday night with a stinker of a performance.

Leading 4-3 in the top of the sixth inning, the Red Sox saw the Houston Astros pound reliever Kyle Barraclough for six runs in the that inning, two more in the seventh and another two in the eighth, carrying the Astros to a 13-5 pounding of the Sox.

Houston second baseman Jose Altuve hit for the cycle for the first time in his career, becoming the first Astro to do so in a decade.

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The lone bright spot on the night was the major league debut of Ceddanne Rafaela, promoted to the big leagues Monday afternoon. Rafaela reached on a bloop single to right in his first major league plate appearance in the eighth, but was then summarily doubled off first on an pop-up that barely reached the outfield.

Barraclough, also recalled earlier in the day from Worcester, took over for starter Chris Sale for the final out in the fifth, then returned for the sixth. Remarkably, even as the Astros sent a dozen hitters to the plate in the sixth and led when the inning began, no one warmed up in the bullpen.

In that fateful sixth, Barraclough walked four batters, hit two others and yielded two rockets — a two-run triple to center by Jose Altuve and a three-run homer from Yordan Alvarez.

Things didn’t improve much in the following innings, capped by Altuve’s two-run homer in the eighth.

On Sunday, after sticking with Chris Murphy for four innings and six runs allowed against the Dodgers, Cora noted that the silver lining was that, in the wake of the defeat, the Sox would at least have a reset bullpen going into the Houston series. But it didn’t seem like that Monday night.

The Sox had grabbed an early 2-0 lead on a two-run double from Triston Casas in the first before the Astros nicked Sale for solo runs in the second (Jose Abreu homer) and third (run-scoring single from Yordan Alvarez).

Houston then took the lead in the fifth before the Sox responded in the bottom of the inning. After a leadoff walk to Masataka Yoshida, Adam Duvall clubbed a two-run homer over everything in left. It was the sixth homer in the last eight games for Duvall, who was named American League Player of the Week for his recent exploits.

But the lead didn’t last long.

Coming up

In the middle game of the series Tuesday, it will be Brayan Bello (10-7, 3.56) vs. J.P. France (9-5, 3.41) before the series concludes Wednesday.

Following that, the Red Sox have an off-day on the schedule and then a six-game road trip to Kansas City and Tampa Bay.