Defense falters again as Sox drop another
BOSTON — At the start of spring training, manager Alex Cora homed in on defense.
He felt it was a weakness that needed to be a point of emphasis for the Red Sox in the 2021 campaign — so much so that Cora and his coaching staff designed different defensive stations to allow players to get as many efficient repetitions as possible in a structured, game-type environment.
Two games into this 162-game season, however, defense has betrayed the Red Sox, resulting in a pair of season-opening setbacks..
In Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park, Boston’s defensive miscues derailed an otherwise stellar outing by Red Sox rookie right-hander Tanner Houck, who dazzled through the first three frames of his five-inning stint, allowing three runs on six hits while ringing up eight strikeouts.
“Between the four-seam and the two-seam fastball, I’m incredibly happy with those,” Houck said afterward. “It’s always been something I’ve been comfortable with along with the sliders. So things are kind of coming together.”
Houck’s outing, however, took an unfortunate turn for the worse in the fourth inning when a crucial fielding error by third baseman Rafael Devers allowed the Orioles to break a scoreless stalemate and push across a pair of runs with two outs.
Houck seemed well on his way to a 1-2-3 inning when he got Anthony Santander to lead off with a groundout to the mound and then induced Ryan Mountcastle to fly out to center field.
However, Houck walked the third batter he faced in the inning, Rio Ruiz, which set the stage for a calamity.
Devers made a sliding grab of a sharply-struck grounder by Austin Hays, then threw to second for what would have been an inning-ending forceout on Ruiz but airmailed his throw over the outstretched glove of Red Sox second baseman Marwin Gonzalez and into right field.
It allowed the Orioles to put two runners in scoring position. Ruiz went to third on Devers’ throwing error and Hays reached base and advanced to second on an errant pitch to Maikel Franco that got past by Red Sox catcher Kevin Plawecki.
Houck continued to battle, running the count to 1-2 against Franco, who then ripped a 94.7-mph fastball from Houck up the middle for a two-RBI single that scored Ruiz and Hays to give the Orioles a 2-0 lead.
Houck got out of the inning when caught Freddy Galvis looking at an 83-mph slider for a called third strike.
It seemed a nightmarish flashback to the defensive miscues of Opening Day on Friday, when second baseman Kiké Hernández booted a hard-hit ball by Santander in the sixth inning of a 3-0 setback.