Andrew Cashner likely will want to forget about his debut with the Red Sox.
The pitcher lasted five innings and gave up five on eight hits. Cashner walked two with as many strikeouts in Boston’s 10-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night at Fenway Park.
It’s certainly frustrating to see the fifth starter have a rocky start with his new club. And manager Alex Cora detailed what went wrong after the game.
“We didn’t keep the ball in the ballpark and that’s very important,” he said on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage. “Made some adjustments throughout the outing but the changeup wasn’t as effective as before and they made some adjustments.”
The blame can’t fully be placed on Cashner, though. Boston came back to tie the game 4-4 in the fifth before Toronto went ahead in the following inning. The Red Sox never could put another run on the board, despite having ample opportunities to do so.
“It’s frustrating, in the sense that, you come back, we had traffic,” Cora said. “… We had men on and we didn’t get the big hit.”
Cashner didn’t hold back in his assessment, saying he didn’t “do a lot of things well” Tuesday night.
“Didn’t really command my off-speed very well,” he said on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Didn’t really do a lot of things well, but I thought I kept us in the game. Wasn’t very good, especially after we scored those runs, tie the game back up, gave up the leadoff homer. Toughest blow of the game.”
The right-hander added he believed he was “more rusty” than anything due to having a long layoff between starts.
Here are some other notes from Tuesday’s Red Sox-Blue Jays game:
— Heath Hembree gave up three earned runs on three hits. He didn’t record an out in the ninth.
“It seems like he’s not been able to throw the fastball up, either. We’ll check with him to see how he feels,” the manager said. “Velocity is down and location isn’t where it usually is.”
Hembree had a 2.53 ERA coming into Tuesday’s game.
— Darwinzon Hernandez, who was recalled earlier Tuesday, pitched a scoreless eighth and picked up two strikeouts in the process.
“Good fastball,” Cora said. “… The slider was good in the beginning. It was a good first day for him.”
— The Red Sox left 10 men on base and were 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position, while the Blue Jays were 6-for-13.
“Guys that aren’t having great years are putting good at-bats against us,” Cora said. “Seems like we don’t execute and when we don’t, they take advantage of it … they’ve been all over us. It’s good at-bats after good at-bats.”
— Mookie Betts extended his hitting streak to eight games. It also marked the 30th straight game the right fielder got on base.
— Xander Bogaerts also continued to be a force in the Red Sox’s lineup.
The shortstop absolutely crushed his 21st home run of the season in the first inning.
