Red Sox lose game on baserunning blunder by Reese McGuire

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That’s not going to be one Reese McGuire is going to want to write home about.

With the Red Sox in the middle of a comeback in the ninth inning of Saturday afternoon’s game at Fenway Park against the Blue Jays, Connor Wong stepped in against Blue Jays closer Erik Swanson.

With runners at first and second and the Red Sox down 5-4, Wong hammered a deep fly ball that looked like it might’ve had the chance to go out.

It appeared McGuire, who was on second base, thought it was heading over the Green Monster as he trotted toward third and pointed his hand to the sky.

But as he rounded third base, the ball did not actually fly out of the park and on to Lansdowne Street.

In fact, it ended up inside center fielder Kevin Kiermaier’s glove before being thrown back into second base for an easy game-ending double play as Toronto hung on for the win.

“The way the ball’s been flying the last few days, you think that’s kind of off the wall at the very least, but you never underestimate the power of Kevin Kiermaier in the outfield,” Toronto manager John Schneider said, smiling. “It definitely wasn’t easy, a little stressful, but at the end of the day you have the right guys against the right guys in the lineup and (Kiermaier) made a great play.”

McGuire had come up in the final frame as a pinch-hitter and delivered a big single, but his baserunning miscue will overshadow what could’ve been for Boston, which dropped to 57-53 in a critical American League East matchup.

“We all missed that one,” Boston manager Alex Cora said of the final play. “Everybody thought it was going to be off the wall. It was a bad play, a bad baseball play.”

The Red Sox are now four games back in the AL wild-card race.

 — with AP

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