Then they suddenly pivoted and found a different way to lose.

1. Nate Jones came into hold a 2-2 tie against the division leading Cleveland in the bottom of the ninth, and things started well enough in the early going, if you want to break things down to granular level like, batters and individual pitches. But he’s not that much of a short reliever, so getting all of one out and getting 0-2 to Carlos Santana before hanging him a slider that he took out for the walkoff goes down as a bad result.

Jones got ahead of Santana by throwing his two sliders, and now will be questioned on the wisdom of going three in a row, but he got beaten on execution rather than sequencing.

2. That whole deflating moment was set up by a surprising burst of life in the top of the ninth. With one out, facing Cody Allen with the Sox down 2-1, Brett Lawrie–the proud owner of a .214/.284/.357 since May 1–drilled a double deep into the left-center gap, and was immediately brought home for the equalizer by an even unlikelier candidate, when Avisail Garcia boomed an RBI double to right-center.

J.B. Shuck and Tim Anderson both struck out as Allen steadied himself, but that seemed like a minor issue at the time.

3. Quintana was set up to be the hard luck loser in the eighth. Coming into the eighth, closing in on 100 pitches, but also coming off six-straight scoreless innings to that point. It was understandable that he got to stick around until he let a baserunner on, but then he immediately allowed a single to Michael Martinez, and stayed in to turn over the lineup.

He was up to striking out Rajai Davis, but one step from escape, Jason Kipnis slapped a go-ahead double into right-center. Despite that Quintana still faced Francisco Lindor before giving way to Jones.

4. On the night, Quintana carried the Sox for 7.2 innings, struck out six and walked only one, and lowered his ERA to 2.63, which is good enough for fourth in the AL. His innings total will finish the ninth as sixth, and there aren’t many real competitors for the most productive AL starter to date outside of his clubhouse.

5. Only Lonnie Chisenhall slipping and falling on his butt on an Adam Eaton single turned triple allowed the Sox to scratch a run across against Trevor Bauer. As is typical, racked up a ton of pitches but still struck out nine over seven strong innings.

If the Sox cannot touch him, or take advantage of a Quintana vs. Bauer mismatch, they are not going to like what awaits them the rest of this weekend.

Team Record: 33-34

Next game is Saturday at Cleveland at 5:10pm CT on CSN

Lead Image Credit: Ken Blaze // USA Today Sports Images