FALMOUTH, Mass. — Last time Falmouth played Yarmouth-Dennis on July 2, it was a bloodbath. Neither team could pull away or hold a lead.

The back-and-forth affair resulted in the Commodores’ lone tie of the year, as the game ended in a 9-9 draw.

The contest was left painfully unfinished. Since the scoring frenzy, the teams hadn’t faced again. In that span, Falmouth kept going strong offensively, while the Red Sox cooled off their once-torrid pace. Saturday provided another look at the matchup.

The sequel was underwhelming. Falmouth (11-11-1) fell to Y-D (13-8-2) on Saturday, 4-1. The Commodores produced 11 hits, left eight runners on base and made five outs on the bases. The defeat wasted another chance to move two games over .500 and claim first place in the West Division.

“We had a rough fifth inning, but that should be plenty of runs for us to be able to make up,” Falmouth manager Jarrod Saltalamacchia said postgame about its offensive struggles.

After a game where no one could hold a lead, Saturday was a pitchers' duel.

The Commodores entered on a high after a 7-6 comeback victory over Cotuit. The win moved them over .500 again and back into a tie with Hyannis for first place in the West.

Y-D also looked vastly different from the two’s last matchup. It lost some of its standout offensive players, AJ Soldra and Cody Miller, and came in losing four of its last five games.

Still, TCU’s Trever Baumler, who was recently named the All-Star Game starter as the only qualified pitcher with a 0.00 ERA, made a few mistakes but kept Falmouth in the game.

Y-D tried to disrupt his rhythm in the first. Both Jayce Tharnish and Will Gasparino laid down bunts, but they were gobbled up by third baseman Ryan Zuckerman. The Red Sox abandoned the strategy in the second, and it worked. They struck first when Baumler’s TCU teammate Jack Bell roped an RBI single into right, plating Armando Briseno.

In the last matchup, Falmouth battled back each time the Red Sox scored. That fight wasn’t present Saturday.

The 'Dores’ offense was without a key piece. Arkansas’ Maika Niu — who entered leading the league with a 1.052 OPS — was absent Saturday. He’d been a fixture in their lineup since Opening Day and had flown up MLB Draft boards.

Without Niu, Falmouth still got on base. But it did nothing with it.

The Red Sox’s Chris Downs posted scoreless first and second innings, working around a Bear Harrison second-inning double with help from Falmouth making two outs on the bases.

The Commodores looked to be learning from their mistakes, loading the bases with no outs in the third. But after Falmouth leveled the score 1-1 with a Carl Schmidt (California) sacrifice fly, it wasted the chance again when Ashton Wilson was picked off third. Though Downs allowed five hits and didn’t strike out anyone, Falmouth couldn’t capitalize.

Still, Baumler, aided by the Commodores’ defense, provided Falmouth time to heat up. After a four-pitch third, both Wilson and Tristan Salinas made diving catches to push Baumler through the fourth.

The 'Dores wasted the chance again. Tyler Pitzer (South Carolina) swapped for Downs, but the same Falmouth team appeared. It managed three hits across the fourth and fifth and had Salinas reach third but failed to score.

The Commodores’ woes came back to bite them instantly. With two outs in the fifth, Tharnish banged a two-run homer off the left field foul pole, reestablishing the Red Sox’s lead, 3-1.

That ended Baumler’s day. He certainly didn’t have his best stuff, allowing his first earned runs all season. But Saltalamacchia emphasized he didn’t throw many bad pitches.

“It's really one pitch, that one breaking ball for the home run,” Saltalamacchia said. “Other than that, he didn't get in situations that really hurt him.”

Falmouth’s offense did him no favors. Zuckerman and Salinas strikeouts terminated another bases-loaded threat in the sixth, while Adrian Lopez popped out with two on in the seventh.

On the mound, Matt Sauser (UCF) replaced Baumler. He kept Falmouth within striking distance, allowing just one run through three innings. That lone blemish came in the seventh, though. Bell laced a double down the left field line, and he slid home ahead of Lopez’s throw on a Tharnish infield single.

With two innings left, the pressure was on Falmouth’s offense to come through. It continued to flounder. A nifty double play by Briseno at shortstop sent the game to the ninth, where Bo Rhudy shut the 'Dores down again to finish them off.

Falmouth hit Yarmouth-Dennis hard last time. With players coming in and out, Saturday’s affair was anything but that. The Commodores struggled to get anything going offensively and hindered themselves numerous times, leading to their defeat.

“ We've been banging, the hitters have been doing a great job, so this doesn't dictate what we do tomorrow,” Saltalamacchia said. “We don't put more pressure on ourselves.”

Noah Nussbaum is the beat reporter for the Falmouth Commodores. You can read all of his articles on the Commodores here.