Embarrassing. Ugly. Humiliating. Pathetic.
Pick an adjective for the Red Sox’ loss on Friday night time, one of many worst in franchise historical past.
It was a efficiency so unhealthy you couldn’t hold your eyes away, and in contrast to something ever seen within the 110-year historical past at Fenway Park that even many of the sellout crowd of 36,796 in attendance didn’t depart as they watched their staff go down by greater than 20 runs within the fifth inning. When it was all mercifully over, the Green Monster scoreboard was virtually not possible to consider.
Toronto 28, Boston 5.
“It was tough to watch,” Red Sox supervisor Alex Cora mentioned. “It was tough to be in the dugout, to be honest with you.”
Somebody let the Red Sox know that the All-Star break is over.
The 28 runs allowed on Friday marked a franchise document. And the one loss in franchise historical past that was worse got here 99 years in the past on July 7, 1923, after they misplaced 27-4 to Cleveland, which was the primary recreation of a doubleheader that day.
At least the Red Sox didn’t need to play one other recreation on Friday night time.
As woeful as they regarded within the first month of the season, and unhealthy as they regarded going into the break, Friday night time marked all-time low for the 2022 Red Sox, who wanted a robust begin within the worst means after a 5-12 document to start out July that included back-to-back lopsided losses to the Yankees final weekend.
“We have to be better,” Alex Cora mentioned earlier than Friday’s recreation. “We’ve got to be more consistent in every aspect of the game.”
They had been worse in nearly each side of the sport.
If the Red Sox proceed to carry out like this, Chaim Bloom might don’t have any alternative however to promote on the Aug. 2 commerce deadline.
Then once more, it’s laborious to think about the Red Sox taking part in that poorly once more.
“We didn’t execute pitches. We didn’t play good defense,” Cora mentioned. “Actually, offensively we grinded at-bats towards (Jays starter Kevin Gausman) for the primary time this season, however general not an important night time. We’ve acquired to make changes. We’ve acquired to discover a means. …
“We’ve just got to be better. Bottom line.”
Friday had all of it, together with an inexplicable inside-the-park grand slam that despatched the night time onto a torturous path. Nathan Eovaldi didn’t have it, and couldn’t make it out of the third inning. The Jays solely led 6-0 when Eovaldi issued a four-pitch stroll to Danny Jansen that loaded the bases and ended the righty’s night time.
In got here Austin Davis, who induced Raimel Tapia right into a first-pitch fly ball to heart subject. Then, catastrophe unfolded.
Exactly two weeks after Christian Arroyo misplaced a ball in proper subject twilight, it was Jarren Duran’s flip. The rookie heart fielder — taking part in there as an alternative of Jackie Bradley Jr. — by no means noticed the ball, which landed about 30 ft behind him, bouncing off the warning observe and the wall.
“Just lost it in the twilight,” Duran mentioned.
“It’s the most helpless feeling you could ever feel.”
When he circled, Duran barely moved. He took just a few steps towards the ball, then stood there as Alex Verdugo raced from left subject, sliding for the ball and beginning the relay. But he was too late to save lots of the Red Sox from embarrassment. By the time Xander Bogaerts obtained the throw in shallow heart, Tapia was nicely on his means dwelling, sliding on the plate to finish an unbelievable sequence.
“From the get go, when he hit the ball, I saw his reaction and I said to (pitching coach Dave Bush), ‘He didn’t see that ball,’” Cora mentioned. “There’s nothing you can do.”
“We try to make him better,” Cora mentioned of the rookie heart fielder. “He’s still a kid. He’s learning the position and all that. I bet at that point, he didn’t even know what to do.”
And that solely put the Jays up 10-0.
More ugliness, additional embarrassment continued to unfold. Danny Jansen hit a two-run homer that made it 14-0 within the fourth. In the fifth, Matt Chapman hit an infield pop-up just under the mound, the place Kaleb Ort, Rafael Devers and Kevin Plawecki created a triangle for the ball to land in between them, which scored one other run. That would have been the final out of the inning.
Nine runs later, the Blue Jays had plated 11 within the fifth to go up 25-3.
If there was ever a necessity for a mercy rule, this could have certified.
“We went from two outs, two strikes, to 11 runs,” Cora mentioned of the fifth.
Each of the Red Sox’ first 4 pitchers of the sport — Eovaldi, Davis, Ort and Darwinzon Hernandez gave up extra runs than they recorded outs.
The Red Sox play once more on Saturday at 4 p.m. There’s nothing they’ll do however transfer on from such a hideous defeat. As Christian Vazquez described it, “We toss it in the garbage, come back tomorrow and try again.”
“It’s one loss,” Cora mentioned. “It doesn’t look nice. It’s not about what they did offensively, however what we didn’t do defensively, on the mound. …
“It’s not lack of preparation. It’s not lack of effort because we keep going about our stuff and going about the process the right way. I would love to say that this happens, but it doesn’t happen often. We’ve just got to turn the page and be ready for tomorrow. That’s the only way you can attack the day tomorrow.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com