There were some weird things that transpired Saturday for the Red Sox. Not a good kind of weird, either, in 12-6 loss to the red-hot Rays, who have won eight straight games.

The Red Sox offense, for one, ended every inning with a strikeout and missed so many scoring opportunities.

The Red Sox defense wasn’t its usual lockdown self. Imagine Jackie Bradley Jr., arguably one of the best center fielders in the game, allowing Denard Span to hit an inside-the-park home run in the second inning when a ball that should have been a single took what David Price called “a funky hop’’ and rolled passed Bradley to the center-field wall?

There was second baseman Eduardo Nunez’s “aggressive’’ play on an infield single by Matt Duffy (4 for 6) in the sixth inning on which he should not have made a throw. But he made the throw that ended up in the Red Sox dugout, allowing the run to score that put the Rays ahead for good.

There was David Price pitching 5⅔ innings against his former team and allowing six runs (five earned), eight hits, and four walks on a day when he didn’t have his best command.

And a bullpen that had been lights out after allowing six runs in an Opening Day loss to Tampa Bay allowed six runs on Saturday. In between, Sox relievers had allowed just two runs in 32⅓ innings(0.56 ERA). Sox pitching allowed a season-high 12 runs and 18 hits in their worst day of the season.

“I have to execute my pitches,’’ Price lamented. “I don’t know if I took my foot off the gas but I haven’t made that effective pitch with two outs. I’ve got to do a lot better with that. I have to lock it in with runners on base and two outs and scoring position and making that pitch.

“I feel like it’s the toughest stretch of two games that I’ve had in my career,’’ he added. “I have to get better with two outs.’’

The Bradley misstep cost the Red Sox two runs and their 1-0 lead evaporated.

“It took a tricky hop,’’ Price said. “Jackie has saved so many runs for this pitching staff. In my eyes he’s the best center fielder in the game. He tried to make a play and it took a funky hop.’’

“The ball was hit towards me and I missed it.’’ Bradley said. “I tried to take the appropriate angle in order to try and make a play and I missed it. I just whiffed on it.’’

The opportunities were plentiful. Twice in the first three innings the Red Sox loaded the bases with nobody out and failed to score more than one run.

“We definitely had opportunities,’’ said Bradley, who struck out to end the third inning. “I for one have been missing a lot of my opportunities. So I’m one to put the blame on myself. I’ve got to be better.’’

The Sox tied it, 4-4, in the fourth on Hanley Ramirez’s RBI single. After the Rays went ahead, 5-4, when Price walked Daniel Robertson with the bases loaded, Rafael Devers hit an opposite-field homer, his fourth, that tied it at 5-5 in the fifth inning.

But the tie was short-lived, as was Price’s outing. Heath Hembree relieved him with a runner on and two out in the sixth. Duffy greeted Hembree with a slow grounder and Nunez threw it away.

“You have to be aggressive,’’ Nunez said. “I asked [manager] Alex [Cora] afterward, should I have not made the throw and he said if you think you had a chance I should go for it. Errors are going to happen. You can’t stop being aggressive.’’

Carlos Gomez homered off Hembree in the seventh, giving the Rays a two-run cushion.

The Red Sox had taken a 1-0 lead in the first off Rays starter Yonny Chirinos. Mookie Betts was hit with a pitch, Andrew Benintendi singled to left, and both advanced on a wild pitch. After Ramirez walked to load the bases, J.D. Martinez struck out. The run came in on Xander Bogaerts’s sacrifice fly to right, but the rally ended there when Devers struck out.

The Sox tied it in the second inning on Christian Vazquez’s double-play grounder after Nunez and Bradley had singled and a wild pitch moved Nunez to third.

Price was taken deep by the red-hot Wilson Ramos (3 for 3) with C.J. Cron (double) aboard.

Down 4-2, the Sox got one back in the third but for the second time left the bases loaded. Bogaerts singled in the run but lefty reliever Ryan Yarbrough struck out two of the next three batters.

The Rays poured it on late in the game.

“Right now, we’re striking out too much,’’ Cora said. “We had chances. We had chances to put them away early in the game, at least get a big lead, and we didn’t do it. We didn’t take advantage of the opportunities and that was the result.’’

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.