You could stub your toe, step in gum and lock your keys in your car. Your Saturday night still wouldn’t be as maddening as the Boston Red Sox’s.
The Red Sox committed three errors and played like garbage in an 8-0 loss to the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park. Boston has lost five of six games on its current road trip, dropping its record to 22-28, and there was a whole bunch of frustration going around following Saturday’s defeat in Arlington.
“The personnel is here. We all have to accept some level of accountability to that,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “We need to play with the aggressiveness that we’ve shown in games and we’ve shown for stretches in time. But that has been extremely inconsistent.”
So many things went wrong for the Red Sox in their shutout loss. The offense was bad. The pitching was bad. The defense was bad. The baserunning was bad. Overall, it was bad. Bad, bad, bad.
Perhaps the most discouraging aspect of the Red Sox’s effort, however, was how lethargic they looked throughout the contest. Boston faced a starter who made his major league debut, Chi Chi Gonzalez, yet the club was overmatched from the beginning. The Sox’s sloppy play then contributed to their demise.
“We played terrible,” second baseman Dustin Pedroia told reporters. “You guys watched it. There’s nothing you could say.”
Things really unraveled in the fourth inning, when Texas scored four runs to open a 5-0 lead.
Robinson Chirinos followed a walk and two singles with a two-run double that sailed over Rusney Castillo’s head after the right fielder took an ugly route to the ball.
Leonys Martin then raced home from third base when shortstop Brock Holt fielded a ground ball and short-hopped catcher Sandy Leon with his throw.
Delino DeShields dropped down a bunt with runners at the corners and Red Sox starter Wade Miley uncorked an ill-advised shuffle pass to the backstop, allowing the Rangers’ fifth run to score.
“That was an ugly game,” Farrell said. “I thought we were tentative on defense, and that contributed into that four-run inning.
“Offensively, against a first-time starter, you don’t take anything away from him, you don’t take anything for granted. We got into some hitters’ counts and he had some action where he put some balls on the ground. But still, that was not a good display of baseball.”
Boston’s three errors — two by Holt and one by Miley — don’t even scratch the surface of how poorly the team played defensively. Holt struggled, Castillo looked uncomfortable, Mike Napoli didn’t pick balls in the dirt he usually handles and Hanley Ramirez again made an adventure out of playing left field.
And yet, the lackluster glove work only represented a slice of the Red Sox’s overall dud.
Miley regressed after five consecutive strong starts and Boston’s offense failed to get anything going. Gonzalez held the Red Sox hitless until David Ortiz opened the sixth inning with a double, and Boston mustered up just four hits thereafter. The Red Sox went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base.
“We’ve had team meetings. Before each series, we have a meeting to stress certain points to address, areas that we feel like we can do better at or be more consistent at,” Farrell said, seemingly searching for answers to Boston’s growing concerns. “This is a matter of us going out and executing in the lines. This isn’t about talking. This is about going out and doing it.”
The Red Sox’s bad performances certainly outweigh their good performances this season, backing them against the wall with June right around the corner. There’s no more sugarcoating Boston’s problems. The Sox are frustrated and plan to fight fire with fire.
A bruised toe, dirty sneakers and a call to OnStar are easy to overcome. The Red Sox’s issues are not.
Thumbnail photo via Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports Images
