Red Sox hand White Sox 3-1 defeat

 BOSTON – In times like these, an athlete’s competitive sensibilities will be tested.

Lose, lose, lose and lose some more is no way to build a career, or keep one alive.

“You really have to stay positive,” White Sox right fielder Dominic Fletcher said. “Try to have fun, just enjoy where you’re at and being around the guys.”

No easy task when the guys’ record fell to 32-110 after a 3-1 loss to the Red Sox Friday at Fenway Park, a storied place that has seen some history.

These Sox, history makers in their own right, are losing on a pace headed to the record for most losses by a team. They need to go 11-9 over their last 20 games to avoid tying the 1962 Mets’ 120 losses, but they have managed to keep their wits about them.

“We try to keep it light rather than be down in the dumps and have a bad attitude all the time,” Fletcher said. “Trying to be steady and be the same person every day, not get too low or high.”

Not getting too high hasn’t been a problem for a team that was trying to win consecutive games for the first time since June 29. After beating the Orioles Wednesday to halt a 12-game losing streak, the Sox lost for the 13th time in 14 games.

In a season full of bad, Fletcher’s defense and Davis Martin’s pitching have been the goods. Fletcher leads American League right fielders with 10 defensive runs saved, and Martin lowered his ERA to 3.27 with six innings of one-run ball Friday.

Martin hit three batters – Masataka Yoshida twice – and one of them led to the run he gave up, but he walked one and allowed three hits while striking out three. The Red Sox broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh when Emmanuel Valdez worked a 12-pitch walk from Matt Foster before Ceddane Rafaela homered on the first pitch.

“That was the key at-bat, 12 pitches, making him work, tiring him out and kind of setting it up for the next guy,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said.

The Sox led 1-0 when Lenyn Sosa doubled against Nick Pivetta leading off the second, moved to third on Fletcher’s ground ball to the right side and scored on Jacob Amaya’s single.

Coming off Tommy John surgery, Martin’s pitch counts have been consistently in the 80s and topping out at 90 in his previous start. He threw 86 against the Red Sox, 51 for strikes.

Martin’s ERA in his last six starts is 2.53.

“He game plans really well and then he goes out and he executes,” said catcher Chuckie Robinson, who got a kiss on the helmet from Davis walking off the field after Tyler O’Neill struck out looking to end the third.

“Chuckie was working very hard back there tonight, as you can tell with me hitting everybody,” Martin said. “Balls were kind of spraying a little bit.

“He’s just back there grinding for his guys and he wants to win, he wants to see us succeed. So I’m not scared to give him a little bit of love, a little kiss on the helmet on the way in.”

Acquired from the Diamondbacks in the offseason Fletcher’s offense (.217/.267/.280 hitting line in 55 games) has sagged after he hit .301/.350/.441 in 28 games for the Diamondbacks last season. But his defense is keeping him in the lineup almost every day under interim manager Grady Sizemore.

 

“It’s something I take a lot of pride in, just trying to save runs,” Fletcher said. “In a full season out in right, I feel like I’d have a good chance to be one of the top guys out there.”

With an expanded repotoire, Davis, meanwhile, continues to tamp down a stake in next season’s starting rotation.

“It’s confidence, continue to learn who I am as a pitcher and competing again for the first time in 14 months,” he said. “Just the consistency of it, that’s the name of the game in Major League Baseball, can you go out and do it 30 times.”