TAMPA -- After seeing his team play a non-competitive game for the second time in four games on this road trip, not to mention losing for the sixth time in the last eight games, Red Sox manager Alex Cora didn¡¯t hold back following Monday night¡¯s 16-1 loss to the Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
¡°It seems like there was a team [in the Rays] that was prepared for the other one. The other one wasn't prepared for them,¡± Cora said. ¡°And that goes from the top all the way to the bottom. That wasn't a good night for us. I'll take the blame, because it seemed like our team wasn't ready to go.¡±
Now in his seventh season managing the Red Sox, seldom has Cora been that blunt after a game.
Cora can stomach a bad game. What he has a hard time dealing with is a prolonged stretch in which his team has been outplayed decisively on both sides of the ball.
¡°The defense has been bad,¡± Cora said. ¡°The offense has been bad. We¡¯ve been inconsistent pitching-wise. Those are the three pillars of baseball, and we haven't been good.¡±
During this eight-game rut, the Red Sox have made 12 errors, which is the most in the Majors. All the while, they¡¯ve scored 1.88 runs per game (second fewest in MLB) while putting up the fourth-worst OPS (.535).
That is a lot of things going wrong at once.
It took a huge offensive performance from Trevor Story for Boston to escape Chicago with a 3-1 win on Sunday, even on a day ace Garrett Crochet fired 7 1/3 no-hit innings against his former team.
On Monday, starter Tanner Houck (2 1/3 innings, 10 hits, 11 earned runs) put the team in a huge hole, and the offensive and defensive woes continued.
¡°We¡¯re just not playing our brand of baseball,¡± Story said. ¡°It¡¯s been a little sloppy on both sides. So it's hard to win when you're not playing well on defense, and we're not stringing at-bats together.¡±
Story didn¡¯t agree with Cora¡¯s assessment that it had anything to do with the manager or the coaching staff.
¡°No, I mean, we¡¯re the ones out there playing the game,¡± Story said. ¡°There's a certain pride when you wear this jersey. You¡¯ve got to put it up. And we haven't been doing that. We have to look ourselves in the mirror, and we¡¯ve got to be honest with ourselves. There's a lot of baseball to be played. We know the type of team that we have, and we can turn it around, I¡¯m very confident in that.¡±
What does Cora think he can do differently?
¡°Show up [Tuesday] and prepare them,¡± Cora said. ¡°Obviously that wasn't a fun night from the get-go. From pitch one, it wasn¡¯t fun. Just got to regroup, come here tomorrow and have a clean game. It would be good to have a clean game.¡±
The slump came immediately on the heels of a five-game winning streak as the Sox lost three of four at home to the Blue Jays in frigid conditions at Fenway Park.
The cold weather followed them to Chicago against a White Sox team that had lost eight in a row until jumping on Boston, 11-1, in the opener of this six-game road trip. That night, Boston made five errors.
The good news for the Red Sox, aside from it being so early in the season, is that no team in the American League East is off to a strong start. The 9-7 Yankees currently lead the pack. At 8-10, Boston is just two games back.
But for a team that made substantial offseason additions in hopes of a rebound season, this type of start has been tough to endure.
¡°As I said from Day One, for us to be where we want to be, we have to be consistent with the things that we do. And honestly, we've been consistently bad in the last 10 days,¡± Cora said.
Story acknowledged the team¡¯s veterans might need to talk out some of the current issues.
¡°We'll have our conversations. We'll reflect on it, and obviously, we have to change a little something up and I feel confident that we'll do it,¡± Story said. ¡°We haven¡¯t made the adjustments the last few days, but I know we will.¡±