It’s three and doubt
Sox match longest slide of ’18
The Indians have brought the Red Sox to the brink.
The brink for a team with the best record in baseball is more like a street curb than a cliff, but the American League Eastleading Red Sox still find themselves in a new, strange and dark place after a 6-3 loss to AL Central-leading Cleveland last night at Fenway Park.
It was the third loss in a row for the Red Sox, a total that for most of the 29 other MLB teams is hardly news worthy.
But the Red Sox have only had one other threegame losing streak this season, and that happened four months ago.
The 2018 Red Sox of manager Alex Cora have never lost four consecutive games, yet that could change tonight in the third game of a four-game set against the Indians.
By the same token, the Sox still could split this four-game series with two straight wins and avoid losing a series for the first time since the start of July.
“We’re not swinging the bat well right now,” said Cora. “Since (Tampa Bay’s Tyler) Glasnow on Saturday, he did a good job, then the bullpen game on Sunday . ... It seemed like yesterday we were waking up early and then they did a good job. Today we weren’t able to get something going until that inning. We’ll come back tomorrow and look for pitches in the middle of the zone and try to hit it in the air and hopefully they go out of the ballpark.”
Mookie Betts had a “calm down” look on his face when asked about the team being in a three-game slide.
“Uh, it’s just been three games,” said Betts, who has two hits in his last 30 at-bats after last night’s 0-for-4 was his third in four games. “We’ve done great this year. (We’re) still in first. Gotta keep that in mind.”
Steve Pearce also wanted little to do with any hints of alarm.
“It’s baseball. It happens,” said Pearce. “Baseball’s been mighty kind to us the first couple months. We’ve hit a little bit of skid, but we’re battling through it. We’ll be fine.”
Give all the credit to Cleveland, which in its first encounter of the season looked to be very much an elite team like the Red Sox.
Rookie pitcher Shane Bieber held the Sox scoreless until the seventh, when they scored three times.
Bieber was much better than Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi, who between the fourth and sixth innings allowed four runs that put the Indians in the lead to stay.
“Poised and controlled, he did a good job,” said Cora about Bieber. “He used the outside part of the plate right away against our right-handed hitters. He’s a guy that, he’s a strike-thrower that he was able to expand too. He pitched down in the zone, away ... and by the time we kind of figured it out, they went to the bullpen.”
And what a bullpen the Indians have.
It’s elite and it’s one they bolstered before the trading deadline with the acquisition of left-hander Brad Hand. Their bullpen is even stronger now with Andrew Miller being eased back. Miller pitched a perfect eighth and Hand was nearly perfect in the ninth when second baseman Jason Kipnis dropped a pop that postponed the inevitable.
“Their bullpen?” said Cora. “They’re good. It’s hard to match up with them. They’ve got the three lefties, they’ve got (closer Cody) Allen, and a side-armer (right-hander Adam Cimber) so it’s a tough bullpen to match up with. They’re strike throwers with good stuff. Miller looked great. He looks like he’s healthy.
"We knew coming into the series that’s their strength now compared to early in the season, so it’s tough to match up.”