Sox look like anything but a playoff team
Pathetic loss to O’s worst of season
Baseball is a long season, yada yada yada.
Forget about that. Tuesday was Game No. 157 and there’s no way anybody who watched the Red Sox lose at Baltimore could come out of it thinking the Red Sox are a playoff team.
It doesn’t matter what they looked like in the five months before. The Red Sox might’ve played their worst game of the year, all things considered, against the worst team in baseball at a time when they can’t afford to be anything less than their best.
Chris Sale, whose name will forever be in the loss column of the 4-2 defeat to the Orioles, gave up three earned runs in 5 1/3 innings as the Sox continue to slip in the standings, holding on by a thread with five games left.
“It’s not even really us versus anybody,” he said. “It’s us versus us.”
The Red Sox must’ve beaten themselves on Tuesday. How else does one explain scoring just two runs on three hits against an Orioles team that is allowing about six runs per game this season, has 106 losses and is using pitchers who have nothing better than average big league stuff, at best.
Bruce Zimmermann, who started this game for Baltimore, has given up some of the hardest contact in baseball during the 2021 season. Pull up his page on Baseball Savant and you’ll find nothing but blue bubbles representing the poorness of his average exit velocity, maximum exit velocity, expected ERA, strikeout rate and fastball velocity.
He’s a traditional lefty junkballer who averages 90 mph. And the Red Sox scored one run off him in four innings.
“We didn’t do much,” manager Alex Cora said. “There were a lot of empty at-bats. We didn’t put pressure on them. We are an offensive team. We’re a lot better than what we showed today.”
The Sox’ offensive performance was nothing short of an embarrassment. It looked like they had one swing and one swing only as every player, one through nine, appeared as though they were trying to hit 500-foot shots out of the ballpark.
Two of them connected. Kyle Schwarber and Hunter Renfroe hit solo shots to account for both Boston runs. Renfroe also singled.
That was it. The Sox finished with three hits against the worst pitching staff in baseball that is playing for nothing and doing it in front of nobody at a mostly-empty Camden Yards.
The eighth inning was unwatchable. The Sox saw four pitches, took three swings and produced three outs.
In the ninth, Rafael Devers swung through a fastball that was eye-level before flying out to left, Xander Bogaerts grounded out to third and J.D. Martinez lined out to left to end the game with a 12-pitch inning.
Cora has been preaching for months that he wants his team to grind out at-bats, use the whole field, take singles, take walks and be good overall offensive players, not just power hitters.
And yet here we are, with five games remaining, the Sox chasing a playoff spot and the manager saying the same things he was saying months ago.
“We’re really good when we go up the middle or go the other way,” Cora said.
At this point, the manager doesn’t even look mad. He doesn’t look sad. Is his team feeling the pressure? He knows his guys better than anyone, and yet he said he’s not sure.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t measure that.”
If anything, Cora looks apathetic, like there’s nothing else he can do but watch his flat-footed squad take bad swings, play poor defense and lose to the worst team in the league.
“It didn’t happen today,” he said. “Hopefully (Wednesday) we come the same way, prepare, be ready, and get better results.”
Sale pitched well for five innings, then left a lazy changeup over the plate to Ryan Mountcastle, who crushed it for a two-run shot that prompted Cora to take him out of the game after just 85 pitches.
Hansel Robles came in and gave up two singles, including one that rolled under Devers glove, and the O’s took the lead.
In the eighth, Alex Verdugo, making a rare appearance in right field after a double switch, overran a bloop single and had to chase it down while one run scored.
The Red Sox showed little fight after falling behind.
“There are going to be days like this,” Schwarber said.
It’s usually unfair to say a team gave up, especially from an outsider’s perspective. Nobody could say for sure if professional athletes gave up or didn’t.
But they sure looked like they did on Tuesday night.
Whether the Red Sox finish with one of the five best records in the American League or not, they aren’t going anywhere if they play another game like that one.