‘Just another day’: Red Sox swept by White Sox as offensive struggles continue

As bad as things have gone for the Red Sox this week, they had a glimmer of hope with their best pitcher this season to date on the mound scheduled to start Sunday to try to end a bad homestand on a positive note.

But when it rains, it pours for these Red Sox.

Shortly before Sunday morning’s first pitch, Michael Wacha – who the Red Sox have won their last four games with on the mound – was scratched and placed on the injured list. Tanner Houck took the ball instead, and the losing continued.

Houck gave up three runs in the third inning, and despite six-plus shutout innings from the bullpen, that was enough to sink the Red Sox again. In a continuing theme, the offense couldn’t sustain anything again in a 3-2 loss at Fenway Park as they were swept by the White Sox and fell to their fifth consecutive defeat.

“Just another day, right?” manager Alex Cora said.

The Red Sox are 10-19 after exactly one month of baseball and lead the American League in losses and were 10 1/2 games back of the Yankees after Sunday’s defeat.

The ending of this one came in familiar fashion.

Down one, J.D. Martinez opened the ninth with a double off the left-field wall, a ball with an exit velocity of 105.7 mph that could have been a game-tying homer in hotter weather. But the brisker weather and wind kept it in the park.

“I hate to say it but he hit it and obviously the conditions, I don’t want to be Mr. Negative but I knew he was going to hit the wall with the way the conditions are,” Cora said.

Still, the Red Sox had the tying run in scoring position with no outs. But the rally never got going, as usual.

Franchy Cordero pinch-ran for Martinez but never even got off second. Christian Vazquez flew out before Alex Verdugo struck out. With Jackie Bradley Jr. on deck, the White Sox put lefty Bennett Sousa in the game, but the Red Sox countered with Kevin Plawecki as the pinch-hitter. But the backup catcher flew out to end the game.

The Red Sox went the day 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. They finished the six-game homestand 6-for-52 in that situation.

“I’m very surprised,” Rafael Devers said of the offense’s sustained struggles. “I know the quality of the team that we have, so I know in the end everything is going to turn around and to our full potential. Right now, it’s not going our way but we’re working hard every day to get where we need to get.”

The trio of Devers, Martinez and Xander Bogaerts – which combined to record six of the Red Sox’ nine hits on Sunday – seem to be the only ones who are consistently hitting. They started a rare rally in the sixth, when Devers and Bogaerts hit one-out singles. Martinez drove in Devers with a groundout before Vazquez hit an RBI single to make it a one-run game.

But that’s where the rally – and ultimately the scoring for the day – stopped as Alex Verdugo flew out on the first pitch.

The rest of the lineup continued to be a black hole. Trevor Story, who batted second in the order, struck out three more times – and heard increasingly louder boos from the Fenway crowd with each punch-out – as his batting average dropped to .194 this season.

In 14 of their 29 games this season, the Red Sox have scored two runs or fewer. They need a boost and a shakeup in the worst way possible.

“We have to make adjustments,” Cora said. “The game is an adjustment game. I’ll probably shave Monday. That might be an adjustment. Hitting isn’t above shaving but people are asking for that. But we have to work. Whatever lineup we have Tuesday is the lineup we’ll have Tuesday and we have to be better.”

Houck found out Saturday night that he would be starting Sunday morning, but he knew he would probably be at least pitching out of the bullpen regardless, three days after he was shelled for seven earned runs. After throwing two scoreless frames to start the game, he ran into trouble in the third when he issued a leadoff single to Reese McGuire before hitting Josh Harrison with a pitch.

McGuire scored on Leury Garcia’s infield single that Devers couldn’t handle. Two batters later, Jose Abreu hit a two-out double to the left-field corner to give the White Sox a 3-0 lead, ending Houck’s day.

That deficit was ultimately too large, once again, for an anemic Red Sox offense. But they continue to trust that this will eventually turn around.

“Because the quality of the team that we have and all the players here are really good players,” Devers said. “So it’s just a matter of time when things are going to come around and we just keep showing every day and working really hard so everything goes the right way.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/Lb0kUsh