The Red Sox (85-71) could not pull off the series sweep versus the Tampa Bays Rays, falling 7-3 in the finale Sunday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, FL. It's the 8th time this season where the Sox had a chance to finish off a sweep and lost the finale.

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Rough Early Start: Connelly Early made his 3rd Big League start in Sunday's final and was tagged with the loss. Early gave up 3 runs (2 ER) all in the 1st Inning. He settled down and worked 3 consecutive scoreless Innings before he exited with the Red Sox trailing, 3-1 after 4 Innings. Early walked 2 (both in the 1st Inning) and struck out 4.

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Sox at the Dish: The Sox managed just 1 Run and 6 Hits over the 1st 6 Innings against starter Joe Boyle and 2 relievers. Nathaniel Lowe struck out to end the 1st Inning and left 3 runners stranded. Lowe struck out and left the bases loaded again in the 5th Inning. The Sox got to within a run with 2 runs in the 7th. Alex Bregman and Romy Gonzalez collected RBI Singles. Sox had 1st and 3rd with 1 out but Lowe struck out and Ceddanne Rafaela was retired on a Pop-Up on the infield. The Sox stuck out 13 times in the game against Rays pitchers.

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#'s of the Night:

--Sunday night's loss ended the Red Sox 8-game win streak against Tampa Bay. The Sox went 10-3 on the season against the Rays.

--The Rays scored 33 runs in their 3 wins versus the Red Sox and 26 runs in their 10 losses.

--Red Sox pitchers have allowed 5 or more runs in 3 of the last 4 games and 9 times in the month of September.

--The Sox are now 22-41 when they strike out 10 or more times in a game this season.

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What's on Tap?: The Sox have Monday off and open a 3-game set in Toronto vs. the Blue Jays Tuesday night. Lucas Giolito, Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello are the Sox probable starting pitchers for the Toronto series. Boston has 6 games remaining over the final 8 days of the regular season schedule with 3 at home (vs. Tigers) and 3 more on the road.

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LOCKED ON RED SOX POSTCAST- Join us all season long as we go live within minutes of the last out with our latest Locked On Red Sox POSTCAST. We are part of the Locked On Red Sox YouTube Page. Locked On Red Sox - YouTube

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On the X: We can continue the Red Sox and Baseball conversation on Social Media. Follow on the X (formerly known as the Twitter) Steve Lenox (@LenoxOnBaseball) / X.

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