Red Sox squander big chances against Charlie Morton in loss to Braves

The Red Sox had Charlie Morton on the ropes and couldn’t finish against him.

That’s a lesson Alex Cora knows wouldn’t yield success.

As a bench coach with the Astros in 2017, Cora developed adoration for the veteran pitcher who helped them win a World Series. The relationship created between the two that season continued, and played a part in Cora’s recruitment of Morton this offseason as the Red Sox sought starting pitching help. But the 37-year-old wound up with the Braves.

“I have a lot of respect for him,” Cora said before Tuesday’s game. “I do. There’s certain times that you see him on the mound and you wish that, ‘Oh, man, I wish he was with us,’ but in this case, I understand the reason, and you have to respect it. I wish him the best except for the two starts probably he’s going to have against us.”

Morton proceeded to remind Cora what he could have had.

The Red Sox had prime opportunities early on Tuesday against Morton, but couldn’t cash in. And when they didn’t, they stood no chance. After they squandered two chances to start the game, Morton and the Braves were practically unhittable the rest of the way as the Red Sox fell 3-1 in the first of their brief two-game series at Fenway Park.

It started with a little bit of luck for the Red Sox, as J.D. Martinez reached on an error to load the bases with no outs, before Rafael Devers was hit by a pitch with two strikes to gift them a 1-0 lead.

It was somehow the only run the Red Sox scored on Tuesday.

Christian Vazquez hit into a double play to end any chance of a big first. And then with runners on first and third to start the second, the Red Sox came up empty. Morton took full advantage.

It seemed obvious it would come back to bite them against Morton, who’s been one of the best starters in baseball over the last four years. The veteran allowed just one more hit — a single by Xander Bogaerts in the third — as he retired 17 of the final 18 Red Sox batters he faced, including the last 13.

The Red Sox had just three hits on the night, and none past the third inning. Morton had nine strikeouts.

“Good pitchers will do that,” Cora said. “He struggled early on with command, but he made some pitches, got out of situations and after that, he did what he usually does and that’s why he’s one of the best pitchers in the big leagues.”

Garrett Richards, who’s been on a tear over the last month, was far from his sharpest. He was hit hard in the third, with three exit velocities of at least 107.2 mph, as he coughed up the lead. He surrendered three runs and four walks, including two to No. 9 hitter William Contreras. He was fortunate it wasn’t worse.

“As soon as I stop walking people I feel like I’m going to take the next step,” Richards said. “That’s just something I’m dealing with right now. I didn’t really have much tonight. Just kind of made it work, tried to go as long as I can. Tonight was just an off-night. Just didn’t really feel good, just didn’t have great stuff.”

The bigger issue, though, was the offense. As potent as the Red Sox have been at the plate this season, it’s not clicking in some prime situations. They entered Tuesday with just a .559 OPS with a runner on third and less than two outs. It’s something that needs fixing as Cora continues to ask his players to just put the ball in play.

“We’ve been preaching this since spring training and we haven’t been able to do it so far this season,” Cora said. “It’s something that, we talk about it, I know the effort is there, I know that they’re trying and for us to keep the line moving and win close games, we have to do that. We haven’t been doing that for a while here.”

Other takeaways from Tuesday:

— Pablo Sandoval was greeted with loud boos from Red Sox fans in each of his at-bats in his first game at Fenway Park since being released by the Sox in 2017. The Braves’ designated hitter, who’s served mostly as a pinch-hitter this season, reminded them of what could have been with a 3-for-4 night, hitting all singles. He came around to score on Ronald Acuna’s two-out, two-strike double in the sixth off Hirokazu Sawamura, which gave the Braves some much-needed insurance.

— Kiké Hernandez made one of the plays of the night in the third. After Marcell Ozuna hit a double to put runners on second and third with one out, Ozuna took off for third on a grounder to Hernandez at second. Hernandez, surprisingly, threw to third for the force out that unfortunately left Ozuna injured as he slid in and hurt a finger.

But it was a perfect throw from Hernandez, who impressed his manager.

“A great head’s-up play,” Cora said. “He’s into every play and he anticipates and you don’t make that play without thinking about it. You just don’t react to that. You plan that before. He saw it before it happened and it was one of the best plays I’ve seen, it looked routine, it looked easy, but to throw the ball from the shift to third base to get the runner, that was the first time I’ve seen that.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3wxmfRr