Lifeless loss for Sox
Cashner’s struggles continue vs. Royals
Was this the night the Red Sox gave up?
How else does one explain their inactivity — the word that perhaps best explains the entire season — in the sixth inning last night?
Why else would a fully focused and properly inspired baseball team have nobody warm in the bullpen with the struggling Andrew Cashner going through the order a third time, about to face one of the game’s premier power hitters, one who had already hit a towering homer two innings earlier?
Nobody was warm. A mound visit was all that transpired. And Cashner quickly allowed a second mammoth shot to Jorge Soler, a dagger that sank the Red Sox, who took a 6-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals.
“I know he hit a home run in the previous at-bat,” manager Alex Cora said, “but it was a matchup we like.”
The loss dropped the Sox to 6 ½ games back of the second wild card spot.
Just last Wednesday, Dave Dombrowski said the Sox didn’t need another pitcher at the trade deadline because they had faith in their bullpen and had already acquired Cashner.
Six days later, Cashner was knocked around the park by MLB’s 26th-ranked offense. The Royals plated six runs off him. They went deep three times.
He might’ve been saved two of those runs had Cora and his coaching staff decided on a quicker hook when Soler was due up in the sixth.
Over his career, Cashner has had major trouble getting through the order three times. Opponents’ OPS the third time through skyrockets from .696 to .736 to .799. The same trend exists this year. Asked why he thinks he’s struggled in those spots, Cashner said, “I don’t know. I’m not a numbers guy.”
Kansas City scored another off a long ball in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead.
The sixth inning was the Royals’ first shot at Cashner a third time through the order. Leadoff hitter Whit Merrifield collected his second hit to start the inning with a single. Alex Gordon grounded out, then Hunter Dozier hit a laser off Michael Chavis’ glove for another single.
Merrifield scored. And Soler was on deck, about to connect on his 31st home run of the season.
Instead of making a pitching change, Cora sent Dana LeVangie to the mound for a brief discussion. Two pitches later, Cashner hung a slider and Soler flattened it. Again it sailed over the Monster. Two more runs were in.
“Just trying to throw a slider away and I hung it,” Cashner said.
Said catcher Christian Vazquez: “Maybe he was looking for the slider. Was trying to expand away and it was in the middle of the plate. He’s a strong guy so he hit it out.”
It was that simple. Why was nobody except left-hander Josh Taylor warming before the sixth inning?
“We were thinking Taylor for the lefty two batters later, but I guess it didnt work out,” Cora said.
In Cashner’s five starts since the Red Sox acquired him from the Orioles, he’s 1-4 with a 7.54 ERA. He was 9-3 with a 3.83 ERA in Baltimore this year.
“I just think I just made too many mistakes and they’ve hammered them here when I’ve made them,” he said. “But I’ve pitched up here for a long time. So I mean this has probably been one of the toughest stretches of my career.”
Cora, too, is out of answers.
“We’re keeping things simple,” he said. “It’s kind of the same game plan. It’s just, he’s not executing his pitches and they’re hitting the ball out of the ballpark.”