Martín Pérez entered today hoping to turn his season around. Over his last two outings, he has combined for 11 earned runs in 3 1⁄3 innings, a 29.70 ERA. Worse, it hasn’t even felt like bad luck. Opponents are seeing the ball, hitting it, and hitting it very hard. He has mustered all of two strikeouts in return. In short, when he’s taken the mound recently, it has spelled disaster.
The Red Sox attacked with some urgency early. Alex Verdugo scored the first hit of the game with a double over the head of center-fielder Michael Taylor, and J.