Red Sox drop below .500: Corey Kluber allows 8 straight hits in ugly loss

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Corey Kluber got absolutely crushed Thursday back here where his major league career began.

He went 3 ⅓ innings of relief, allowing seven runs, 11 hits (two homers) and one walk while striking out one. The Red Sox lost 10-3 to the Guardians at Progressive Field.

Boston dropped to under .500 at 31-32. It is the first time the Red Sox have been under .500 since April 28 (13-14).

Triston Casas belted his seventh homer and his first since May 16 to cut Boston’s deficit to 3-2 in the top of the sixth inning. But Cleveland responded with a five-run bottom of the sixth inning against Kluber.

Kluber, who won two Cy Young awards with Cleveland, allowed eight straight hits (homer, single, double, double, triple, single, single single) to lead off the sixth.

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Matt Dermody goes 4 innings

The Red Sox received heavy criticism for promoting starting pitcher Matt Dermody who posted and eventually deleted a homophobic tweet in 2021.

Dermody had difficulty throwing strikes. He threw 45 of his 76 pitches for strikes (59%). He went 4 innings, giving up three runs, all earned, four hits and one walk while striking out one.

José Ramírez took Dermody deep twice. Ramírez crushed a 392-foot homer to left field against him in the first inning to make it 1-0. Ramírez’s 412-foot, 106.5-mph blast to center field in the third inning made it 3-0.

Ramïrez kept it going after Dermody left the game. The slugger took Kluber 390 feet to right field in the sixth. His third home made it 4-2 Cleveland.

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