Rob Refsnyder owns critical mistake as Red Sox fall to Tigers

Refsnyder misread a fly ball in the outfield that allowed the Tigers’ only two runs of the game to score.

Rob Refsnyder made a costly mistake in a Red Sox loss Saturday. Duane Burleson/Getty Images

Rob Refsnyder’s early misread in the outfield turned out very costly for the Red Sox on Saturday.

In the bottom of the second inning, Detroit batter Trey Sweeney belted a fly ball toward the outfield wall. Refsnyder misjudged the distance on the hit and came up short of making a relatively routine catch on the warning track. As a result, two Tigers scored.

Detroit went on to beat the Red Sox, 2-1, scoring its only two runs on the error. One non-Major League Baseball affiliated algorithm estimated Refsnyder had a 100 percent chance to catch the ball.

“I should catch that every time,” Refsnyder told reporters after the game. “I apologized to Nick [Pivetta]. Disappointed that I didn’t catch it … the wind took it a lot further than I thought, and yeah, that’s all on me.”

Boston had plenty of time to make up for the poor defensive play, but struggled to generate any offense against Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. Skubal worked eight innings, striking out eight Red Sox batters and only allowing four hits. His one true blemish came in the first inning, when Tyler O’Neill launched a solo home run to open the evening’s scoring.

After the O’Neill blast, Boston’s bats went silent – despite solid pitching of its own from Pivetta, who tossed six innings and recorded six strikeouts.

Without the run support on the other side, though, Pivetta earned another loss, and Boston’s American League wild card hopes took another hit. The Red Sox are 3.5 games back from the Minnesota Twins for the final wild card spot.