ANAHEIM, Calif. — After an atrocious first inning by Walker Buehler, a baserunning blunder of a double play initiated by Jarren Duran, and Alex Cora’s second ejection in as many games, the Red Sox rallied to take a tie into the late innings Monday night.
They lost anyway.
Boston dropped its series opener with the Angels, 9-5, on another day they beat themselves as much as the opposition did.
In losing by four, the Red Sox four times forced in a run by issuing a walk or hitting a batter with the bases loaded. They walked 11 overall, their most in a nine-inning game since 2014.
The Red Sox (40-40) have lost three games in a row for the first time since late May.
“You can’t walk seven guys in a Major League Baseball game and expect to be successful,” said Buehler, whose seven free passes were a career-high. “We keep trying different things and looking at different stuff, or this (pitch) mix or that mix. At the end of the day, if you don’t execute and throw strikes, you really don’t have a chance.
“I feel like a broken record, but it’s embarrassing. It’s just not who I want to be as a baseball player. I’d rather get whacked around than do that. Somehow, this year I’ve managed to do all the negative things you can.”
Buehler lasted four innings with five runs allowed, all in the first frame. At the halfway point of the season, he has a 6.29 ERA, but that alone doesn’t tell the story.
Consider: In six starts across the first month, he had a 4.28 ERA. He then went on the injured list with right shoulder bursitis, and in seven starts since returning, he has an 8.59 ERA.
Are the Sox sure he is healthy?
“100 percent,” Cora said.
Asked if he was pitching through anything, Buehler said: “I don’t want to talk about that.”
And pitching coach Andrew Bailey: “I’m not aware of any physical limitations.”
Maybe, then, the club will re-evaluate his rotation spot.
“We’ll talk about it,” Cora said.
Buehler said he worries about that because “you have to” due to his poor results. The Red Sox’ starting pitcher depth figures to get deeper in the next couple of weeks, if Tanner Houck (right flexor pronator strain), Kyle Harrison (working on things in the minors), and Hunter Dobbins (right elbow strain) progress the way team officials expect.
“I’m not naive to that kind of stuff. It’s just difficult,” he said. “I’m a guy that’s open to kind of doing whatever needs to be done. (But) I’m a starting pitcher and have been a starting pitcher my whole life. I don’t necessarily think that changing that is going to somehow magically fix everything.”
In the opening inning. Buehler threw 39 pitches (16 strikes) and faced 11 batters across 16 minutes. Leadoff batter Zach Neto hammered his first pitch over the left-center field wall for a home run. Later, after Bailey made a mound visit, Buehler retired Travis d’Arnaud on a first-pitch popup for the second out, putting the Sox on the brink of escaping with just the one run allowed.
But Jo Adell laced an RBI single to left, bringing in Mike Trout from second when Duran’s throw was off target. Then Buehler began a brutal four-batter sequence: hit by pitch, walk, walk, hit by pitch. The last three came with the bases loaded, forcing in a run each.
The rally ended with Nolan Schanuel flying out to center field — for the second time in the inning.
“Three scoreless after giving up five, I don’t think really necessitates a whole lot of hope,” Buehler said.
His outing more than negated the Sox’ five consecutive singles for three runs in the first inning against righthander Jack Kochanowicz (five innings, four runs).
Cora was ejected by second base umpire Alan Porter after an unusual sequence in the fifth inning.
With Duran on second base and nobody out, Abraham Toro rolled a grounder right at shortstop Zach Neto. Duran tried to advance to third, but was tagged out in a rundown. Toro tried to capitalize by getting to second, but was thrown out.
Immediately, Cora emerged from the dugout to argue that Luis Renfigo — the third baseman who wound up at second and tagged Toro — had blocked the base with his leg, which would be obstruction and would mean Toro should be safe.
Cora said Porter told him that Toro was out by so much that the defender’s positioning didn’t matter.
“Did the fielder obstruct, or was the runner just out?” Porter told a pool reporter. “We felt that the runner, no matter what the fielder had done in that situation, was out. He was out by a lot.”
In his second inning of work in a tied game, Garrett Whitlock gave up four runs in the bottom of the eighth. One of them scored on a bases-loaded walk.
That finished the job Buehler started.
“Outside of a couple of swings, I think I largely beat myself, which is just not something you can do here,” Buehler said. “I think I can still pitch in the major leagues. At some point, the belief — it gets hard to keep tricking yourself.”
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.