BOSTON -- Kevin Kiermaier's arm deserves every ounce of respect the Boston Red Sox showed it Tuesday night.
In time, perhaps his bat will merit the same consideration.
Kiermaier, the Tampa Bay Rays' Gold Glove center fielder, entered Tuesday night with a .521 OPS, tied for 93rd among 109 American League players with at least 35 plate appearances. So when he led off the 10th inning of a scoreless game, there was no reason for Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes not to challenge him with one of his blazing fastballs.
Instead, after a first-pitch heater clocked at 97, Barnes fed Kiermaier only off-speed pitches: three straight curveballs and a changeup that was fouled off. Barnes came back with another curve, and Kiermaier teed off, hitting it into the right-field bleachers to break the stalemate before the Rays tacked on more with Desmond Jennings' two-run double against lefty Tommy Layne to cap a 3-0 Rays victory.
"Maybe we should’ve gone heater in after he had seen two curveballs, three curveballs already and a changeup kind of slowed him down," Barnes said. "He was already on his front foot a little bit. Maybe we should’ve gone heater. But if I execute that pitch a little better we're probably OK."
If not for Kiermaier's arm, the game might have ended before that.
The Red Sox mounted their only threat of the game against Rays lefty Drew Smyly when Chris Young and Ryan Hanigan drew back-to-back walks to open the third inning. Jackie Bradley Jr. singled to center field, where Kiermaier fielded the ball and came up firing. Third-base coach Brian Butterfield wisely held Young rather than test the arm of Kiermaier, who had 15 assists last season.
With the bases loaded and nobody out, Mookie Betts hit a sharp grounder to third baseman Evan Longoria, who cut down Young at the plate, and Dustin Pedroia rolled into a double play.
The Red Sox didn't have a baserunner thereafter, with Smyly and relievers Erasmo Ramirez and Alex Colome combining to retire the final 23 batters. The Sox were held to one hit in a game for the first time since Aug. 30, 2014, when Tampa Bay's Jake Odorizzi and two relievers pulled the trick.
With their third consecutive loss, the Sox fell back below the .500 mark at 6-7. The Red Sox might have suffered an even greater loss in the first inning, when starting pitcher Joe Kelly left with what the team described as a "right shoulder impingement."
