BREWSTER, Mass. — A brief winning streak came to a long and painful end Wednesday, as Brewster collapsed across two innings and dropped its contest against Yarmouth-Dennis, 8-1. The Whitecaps (6-4) could not replicate their early-season comebacks against the team with the best record in the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Moments away from a clean inning of relief, Finbar O’Brien (Gonzaga) plunked Red Sox right fielder Jake Souders. The two-strike count was quickly erased, and O’Brien had to start over from scratch with Y-D’s best hitter coming up. Again, Brewster’s right-handed reliever got the count to 1-2, but he allowed a walk three pitches later. Before Wednesday, the right-hander had amassed nine strikeouts across seven innings. This time, the environment proved all too hostile.

“When you put too much pressure on the guy that’s on the mound, he’s not going to be perfect,” manager Jamie Shevchik said. “That’s the one spot where they might be good, but they’re not going to be perfect, and right now we’re expecting [our pitchers] to be perfect. We are just putting too much pressure on them.”

O’Brien started his outing with a runner on third, then loaded the bases within his next two batters. With one clean ball in play or a strikeout enough to stop the inning from unraveling, the pressure proved too much.

A dribbler toward first forced Eddie Yamin IV (Louisiana State) to make a dart-like throw in his CCBL debut. His rushed toss sailed over the covering O’Brien, rolling into the Y-D dugout and sending two runs home.

In keeping with the Red Sox early-season script, once the scoring gates flew open, almost nothing could stop the roaring, Yarmouth-Dennis offense. Once again with two outs, Brewster watched its advantage disappear, unable to get weak contact or force Y-D into uncomfortable situations. The Red Sox collected two walks, and then the hit parade began. Before those at Stony Brook could blink, seven runs separated the home and visiting teams.

That eruption felt miles away from the fast-paced pitcher’s duel that unfolded innings earlier. Y-D right-hander Danny Nelson (Clemson) looked electric with his three-pitch mix, striking out the side to open the bottom of the first. Brewster right-hander Ethan Grim (Virginia Tech) started on the mound and delivered another high-level start, particularly for a player who turned 19 earlier this month.

Whitecaps starting pitching has dominated the early innings for the past week, but Grim may have turned in the best performance yet against the best team on the Cape so far.

“I threw some sinkers in there today; just got that pitch last week so that was working too,” Grim said. “I got a lot of chops into the ground so just establishing the heater and then working the off speed off of that.”

Grim pushed near his established 65-pitch limit, getting 4 2/3 innings deep before handing the ball to the bullpen. The Hokie was charged with one earned run while striking out four against a Red Sox team that has spent the first two weeks punishing mistakes.

Despite the midgame chaos, there was a brief shining moment when the Stony Brook faithful jumped from their seats. Brewster’s home run leader had done it again, as Jacob Lee (Virginia Commonwealth) launched an absolute laser to deep center field.

“My first at-bat [Nelson] threw me the kitchen sink,” Lee said. “I think he really liked mainly sinker/slider. He threw me one my second at-bat; my first at-bat I kind of looked dumb. I had a feeling he would come back with it so I just used my approach, trying to hit a ball to right field and he threw it again, something I could handle.”

Lee has built one of the CCBL’s loudest slugging profiles and already established himself as a future league all-star candidate. The Virginia Commonwealth catcher is putting on a show worth watching nightly for a few reasons. This is Lee’s first real opportunity at a summer league championship and his first summer spent on beautiful Cape Cod. The circumstances are not getting in the way; if anything, they are tightening his blinders.

“As [Shevchik] always says, stay away from the field, have some fun, stay off our feet and rest a little bit,” Lee said.

The Whitecaps remain a terrifying lineup to face. Shevchik is fully aware of the team he possesses, and the full-day flush his team is about to get has the potential to revamp the performance they've already shown flashes of.

The ‘’almosts” and “could-have-been’s” will haunt Brewster spectators until the next game on Friday. In a league where pitching can look limited, the Whitecaps keep managing to squeeze fantastic starts and groundbreaking relief efforts out of their players. When the bats roll hot, and Brewster looks fierce in the box, they’re the team to beat across the sand dune.

The Whitecaps play at Bourne at 6 p.m. on Friday. Watch the Whitecaps broadcast on Cape League TV or follow the game on Instagram (@brewsterwhitecaps) or X (@BrewsterCaps).

Matt Ford-Wellman can be reached at mfordwellman.media@gmail.com or on X @MattFW_4.