Bogaerts' baserunning lapses hurt Red Sox Tuesday

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BOSTON - Xander Bogaerts had a sloppy night on the bases.

Bogaerts has impressed in his young career by demonstrating good instincts, but they were missing on the basepaths Tuesday night in the Red Sox' 5-2 loss to the Rays at Fenway Park.

In the third inning, Bogaerts led off with a double. With David Ortiz due up next, Bogaerts was off on the pitch, breaking for third. Problem was, Ortiz had hit a low liner to left -- directly in front of Bogaerts -- and the shortstop was easily doubled up at second base.

Later in the game, with the Red Sox trailing by three, Bogaerts lined a base hit into the left field corner and decided to try to go for two. He was thrown out at second. Instead of having a baserunner in scoring position with one out in the inning, the Sox had no one on and one out.

As interim manager Torey Lovullo noted, Bogaerts had to be 100 percent certain that he could make it second, given the circumstances.

Aggressiveness is to be encouraged and give Bogaerts credit for trying to create some things on a night when the Red Sox were unable to generate much offensive momentum after the first inning.

But good baseball sense has to be displayed, too.

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