Sunday will lengthy be remembered in Red Sox historical past because the day David Ortiz was inducted into the Hall of Fame, because the franchise icon formally turned baseball royalty in Cooperstown.
A pair hundred miles away in Boston, although, his former crew was ending off a weekend to neglect.
In three troubling days at Fenway Park, this Red Sox season – if not already – formally turned regarding, with their brief and long-term futures out of the blue in limbo because the commerce deadline approaches in a single week.
On Friday, they suffered a historic 23-run loss. On Saturday, they misplaced their greatest participant to harm. And on Sunday, their woes continued with an unsightly 8-4 loss that was borderline unwatchable at instances, because the Blue Jays accomplished a sweep.
“We just have to play better,” Red Sox supervisor Alex Cora mentioned. “It doesn’t matter, the commerce deadline, no matter. We’re taking part in .500 baseball. We’re again to impartial. We’re again to the place we have been April eighth. …
“The brand of baseball we’re playing is awful. We’re not catching the ball, we’re not putting good at-bats, we’re not throwing strikes. It’s bad. It’s really bad right now.”
The Red Sox have dropped 5 video games in a row, outscored 67-13 in that span. They’re 5-15 in July and with a 48-48 report, they’re again at .500 for the primary time since June 5 as they proceed to fall behind within the Wild Card chase.
And they maintain beating themselves.
The solely consistency it appears the Red Sox have proven all through the month of July is dangerous protection. It led to Friday’s embarrassing defeat and continued on Sunday, which had sufficient clips for a blooper reel.
Sunday’s fifth inning was as dangerous because it will get. The Red Sox trailed simply 5-2 when a collection of inexplicable miscues in the end determined their destiny. It began to get away from them as Hirokazu Sawamura issued a leadoff stroll to Teoscar Hernandez. Two batters later, Matt Chapman smoked a double earlier than Raimel Tapia’s RBI single.
Then it acquired ugly.
With Rafael Devers on the injured checklist, rookie Jeter Downs made his third profession begin at third base, the place he had a troublesome day general and made two errors in a row within the inning. Danny Jansen hit a troublesome grounder to Downs that he fielded cleanly, however as he threw house to attempt to Chapman out on the plate, the ball hit him sq. within the again, permitting Chapman to attain.
The subsequent batter, George Springer, hit a routine grounder to 3rd. But Downs bobbled it, and was too late getting the runner at second base, which loaded the bases.
The miscues appeared to be contagious, and it acquired even worse. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got here up subsequent and hit a tender tapper to the correct facet of the mound. Bobby Dalbec rushed from first to seize it, and Sawamura sprinted to cowl first. But the pitcher overran the bottom by a few ft as he acquired the toss from Dalbec. Sawamura desperately tried to get again to the bag, however Guerrero was secure and one other run scored.
The Red Sox made three errors on Sunday and have appeared inept defensively far too steadily throughout a important juncture of their season.
“I think defensively, we have taken a step back the last 14 days,” Cora mentioned. “We were really good defensively early on. Yeah, we have moving parts, but you have to slow it down. Catch the ball, throw to the right base, don’t panic out there. It seems like right now the game speeds up at one point in the game and it looks horrible.”
With so many gamers on the injured checklist, the Red Sox have had some gamers out of place as they attempt to plug in holes. But the protection has been worse than it needs to be.
“We got guys playing different positions, right?” Cora mentioned. “At the end of the day, this is what we have and this is what we are. I mentioned last year what we did. One thing that we did when we had the COVID situation, we caught the ball. We turned double plays, we played clean baseball and gave our pitchers a chance to maneuver lineups and the offense to scratch runs. Right now, we’re not doing that.”
With this weekend’s sweep, the Red Sox have one way or the other made their circumstances much more dire, with 4 video games in opposition to the Guardians, three with the Brewers and one with the Astros – all contending groups – earlier than the Aug. 2 commerce deadline.
Cora has gave the impression of a damaged report during the last three weeks saying the Red Sox have to play higher baseball. They’ve hit a degree the place they will’t afford to not.
“We’re talented and we can turn it around quick,” Cora mentioned. “It starts tomorrow. We have to show up tomorrow and play good baseball. It starts with Nick (Pivetta) on the mound, good at-bats, running the bases well, play good defense.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com