Red Sox Latest Extra-Inning Loss Falls Squarely on Jackie Bradley Jr.

At a point in the season, when every loss does serious damage to the Red Sox division title hopes, the defending champions took a bad one Sunday night. In the finale of a three-game rematch of last year's World Series, the Dodgers stole the rubber game in 12 innings in Fenway after Boston's heroics tied it in the eighth.

And if there's one man to blame for that outcome, it's Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley, who ran into a brutal first out at third base in the bottom of the 11th.

After doubling to lead off the inning in a 4-4 game, Bradley Jr. inexplicably tried to scamper to third on a grounder to shortstop Corey Seager, breaking the cardinal rule of never making the first out at third base. The Sox went on to load the bases in the inning, but came up empty thanks in large part to Bradley Jr.'s blunder.

Despite being a perennial Gold Glove contender in center field, the 2018 ALCS MVP has been a huge disappointment offensively this season, batting an ugly .232 with a slugging percentage below .400.

Bradley is one of a number of Red Sox who need to turn their seasons around in order to get Boston back in thick of the AL East race. At 50-43, the underachieving club is 10 games back of the New York Yankees for the division lead and 2.5 back of the second AL Wild Card.

Sure, Alex Cora could've bunted Bradley to third for Mookie Betts and the top of the order in the 11th. But why sacrifice an out there at all when he's already in scoring position? And why assume you'd need to insure against Bradley committing a mortal baseball sin?

Good teams rarely make boneheaded plays like Bradley Jr. made Sunday night –– we'll see if the Red Sox have what it takes to bounce back and right the ship.