The Red Sox have dropped three games in a row and eight of their past 12.
Miller inherited a tied game in the ninth inning and struggled again, allowing a run and throwing 22 pitches (10 strikes). The lefthander hit his first batter, Chase DeLauter, with a pitch, and DeLauter eventually scored on Nathaniel Lowe’s sacrifice fly. Altogether, Miller yielded two hits and a walk.
In September, Miller has one clean inning in seven attempts. He has a 8.53 ERA and 2.37 WHIP.
At the plate, the Red Sox had few highlights. Mickey Gasper launched a pinch-hit tying home run off setup man Hunter Gaddis to lead off the eighth, but the Sox totaled eight runners stranded on base and went 0 for 9 with men in scoring position.
Lefthander Payton Tolle held AL Central-leading Cleveland to two runs in 5⅔ innings. When manager Chad Tracy pulled him in the sixth, Tolle walked off the Fenway mound — for potentially the last time this year — to a standing ovation from the fans behind the home dugout. He waved back to them.
Tolle finished his rookie season with a 3.03 ERA and 171 strikeouts in 148⅔ innings (26 starts).
In a matchup between perhaps the top two rookie pitchers this year, Tolle was almost equal to fellow lefthander Parker Messick (five innings, one run) of the Guardians.
Tolle slogged through a 22-pitch second frame, during which he allowed three hits and two walks but managed to hold the Guardians to the two runs. Angel Martinez led off with a double down the left-field line and scored on David Fry’s single, deflected by Tolle into center field.
With the bases loaded and no one out, Tolle got Brayan Rocchio to ground into a double play, bringing in the other run.
Tolle finished having scattered eight hits. He struck out five.
Messick cracked in the bottom of the frame, with the Red Sox getting one back. Adley Rutschman doubled to left field, moved to third base on Caleb Durbin’s groundout, and scored on Andruw Monasterio’s ground out.
That was the first piece of an encouraging night for Rutschman, who doubled twice off Messick and recorded a hard line out to deep center off lefty reliever Tim Herrin.
Entering the game, Rutschman was 2 for 26 with no extra-base hits against lefties as a member of the Red Sox.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa drew a walk in the seventh inning. As he took his a few steps toward first base, he tossed his bat to the side and pointed and looked upward, as if thanking the baseball gods for allowing him to reach. It was his first time getting on base since Sept. 12. He most recently recorded a hit Sept. 11.
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.
