Blowing another one
Cora ejected as Sox lose in excruciating fashion again
How low can it get for the Red Sox?
They walked off the Fenway Park field Saturday followed by boos after another night of misery and another pitiful loss. The season started a month ago and there are already too many of them to count.
This one followed an alltoo-familiar script. Lifeless offense? Check. A blown ninth-inning lead? Check. An extra-innings loss? Check. It was the same old story in a 3-1 loss to the White Sox, clinching their sixth consecutive series loss in their fourth consecutive defeat.
“It’s the nature of the game, right?” said manager Alex Cora, who was helpless as this meltdown unfolded after he was ejected in the third inning. “It’s always good when you come back. It’s the other way around. This way, it’s kind of like, here we go again, to be honest with you.”
The Red Sox (10-18) led 1-0 in the ninth — behind Rafael Devers’ RBI double in the fifth — when Hansel Robles came in to try to lock down a needed save for a struggling bullpen. But it went south quickly.
Robles walked the leadoff batter, Jake Burger, before Adam Engel went the other way on a double down the left line that rolled to the wall and put both runners in scoring position with one out. It took just a sacrifice fly from Leury Garcia, who hit one to right that scored Burger for the tying run, to extend the game.
The Red Sox have now blown an MLB-leading ninth save this season, which includes five in the ninth inning or later.
“We’re just going through a rough time and we’re going to get through it,” Robles said.
Robles kept it a tied game, but it didn’t matter. The Red Sox had a chance for a walkoff victory with two runners in scoring position and one out in the bottom of the ninth, but the struggling Bobby Dalbec struck out again, and Trevor Story chased at the first pitch and popped out to send the game to extras.
“That’s the situation you hope you’re up in and obviously wanted a better result,” said Story. “Just didn’t come through right there.”
In the 10th, Matt Barnes, fresh off his best outing of the season Friday night, coughed up two runs as the White Sox led off with a goahead RBI double from Jose Abreu and a RBI single by Luis Robert.
The two-run lead was more than enough of a cushion. Devers, Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez all went down in order as the Red Sox fell to 0-6 in extrainnings games this season.
It’s unclear if Matt Strahm, who threw just four pitches in the eighth to keep the Red Sox ahead and has been one of their best relievers this season, was in consideration to take the ninth. Cora said he trusted pitching coach Dave Bush and bench coach Will Venable’s decision-making. But the Red Sox have continued to play matchups and still yet to have someone they can trust to lock down a game in the ninth.
It certainly didn’t help either that the offense gave them no margin for error, a troubling theme that’s continued to burn the Red Sox throughout the first month of the season.
“There’s no room to breathe for us right now,” Cora said. “We have to get better offensively, that’s the bottom line.”
The Red Sox entered and finished Saturday in last place in the American League East and their outlook looked even bleaker in the third, when Cora was tossed for arguing a borderline strike three call on Story.
But the loss of their manager didn’t exactly light a fire under the Red Sox.
The Red Sox wasted Nick Pivetta’s best start of the season, even though he didn’t have his best fastball. But he struck out eight and didn’t walk anyone for a second consecutive start in six shutout innings as he lowered his ERA to 6.08.
Red Sox starters haven’t been the problem, producing a 1.90 ERA in their last 16 starts, a span of 80 2/3 innings. The offense’s issues continue to be puzzling. They’ve scored 2.7 runs per game in their last 19, a stretch in which their record is 5-14.
“We feel like we have the team,” Story said. “We’re just not performing right now. Obviously each guy, we’ve just got to kind of look in the mirror and figure it out, starting with me. Just kind of how it’s going right now. Obviously we’re working and we’re doing everything we can to get it right. Sooner rather than later we feel that’s going to happen.”
The frustration is only mounting, but Cora isn’t questioning the effort level. The Red Sox are still competing even though the results consistently aren’t going in their favor, and they trust that it will turn eventually.
“Just come together as a team, stay with each other, believe in each other,” Dalbec said. “Our best baseball is ahead of us obviously. I don’t think any of us are worried. It’s just one of those things that happens.”