The struggles continue.
The Boston Red Sox returned home Tuesday for a brief, two-game set with the Toronto Blue Jays. But they couldn’t extend their win streak to two after Toronto took the lead for good with a three-run fourth inning, resulting in a 7-5 Red Sox loss at Fenway Park.
Chris Sale lasted just four innings and gave up five earned runs on seven hits and had just three strikeouts. Heath Hembree and Matt Barnes each surrendered an earned run, and Mookie Betts struck out swinging to end the game with a man on.
“Everyone did what they had to do today except for me,” Sale said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “That’s a frustrating spot to be in.”
While the Red Sox are scoring runs, they’re not winning games, and dropped to 3-9 on the season. Manager Alex Cora had a simple message for his team after the game.
“We have to play better,” he said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I’ve been saying it all along. Just play better. Better defense, better offense, pitch better. … we just gotta get better.”
Here are some other notes from Tuesday’s Red Sox-Blue Jays game:
— The Red Sox received their 2018 World Series rings in a pregame ceremony that featured some of the New England Patriots and Boston greats such as David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez and Manny Ramirez.
Julian Edelman, Stephon Gilmore and newly retired Rob Gronkowski all threw out the first pitch.
“It was tremendous, tremendous. Obviously we accomplished something, it was great,” Cora said. “Now we got our rings. Now we have to get back to playing good baseball.”
— Dustin Pedroia made his 2019 debut and went 1-for-4.
— Mitch Moreland hit his team-leading fourth home run of the season in the first inning.
The first baseman also leads the team with 10 RBIs and seven extra-base hits.
— Boston’s starting rotation certainly hasn’t got off to the start many expected they would.
The starters have a combined 9.30 ERA over 50 1/3 innings and have given up 52 earned runs.
