Suffice to say things could be going better for Andrew Cashner right now.
The Boston Red Sox starter, acquired from the Baltimore Orioles last Saturday, delivered a second straight underwhelming outing since joining the Sox. This time, it was in a 5-0 loss to his former team Sunday at Camden Yards.
In the loss, Cashner allowed four runs on six hits over as many innings. He walked a pair and struck out seven, also surrendering a pair of home runs to Trey Mancini. While you maybe could argue that his former team has some type of advantage since he was their teammate just over a week ago, that really is a weak excuse.
To be fair, he settled down pretty well after the third inning. However, both of his outings have been tough, and they’ve come against bad teams in the Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays. In the weeks leading up to his trade to the Red Sox, surrendering homers hardly was an issue for Cashner. But in both starts with Boston, the 32-year-old gave up a pair of dingers.
So what does Cashner think about his struggles Sunday and prior?
“I thought I had really good stuff, I thought I just made two mistakes. Mancini’s a good hitter and made pretty good swings on both those balls,” Cashner said after the game, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I thought other than those pitches, I thought I threw the ball really well today. Couple of adjustments here and there, I think I’m right where I want to be.”
Cashner wasn’t brought in to be the team’s savior — that’d be unfair to him. His role is to fill the black hole that was the fifth starter spot, however he hasn’t done much to help rectify that issue beyond just going six innings each time out.
Here are some other notes from Sunday’s Red Sox-Orioles game:Â
— Mere hours removed from hanging 17 runs on Orioles pitchers, the expectation probably wasn’t for the Red Sox to get undressed by Asher Wojciechowski, a 30-year-old journeyman.
But that ended up being the case, as the Sox offense was no-hit through six innings by Wojciechowski. In those frames, Brock Holt was the only player to reach, getting hit by a pitch in the third and working a walk in the sixth. Rafael Devers broke up the no-no in the seventh with a double off the wall in right-center, but that proved to be the Red Sox’s only hit of the day.
— Mookie Betts entered the game having hit safely in 12 straight contests, but that streak was snapped with an 0-for-3 performance. Betts did reach base with a one-out walk in the ninth.
— The Orioles have been a dreadful team for some time now, and the Red Sox have capitalized on that, winning 10 consecutive series against Baltimore entering this weekend. But with Sunday’s defeat securing a series loss, that streak was snapped.
— Speaking of snapped streaks, the Red Sox had gone 81 straight games without getting shut out. That run was snapped Sunday.
— The Red Sox now will begin a stretch of 14 straight games against the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees, beginning Monday with a three-game set at Tropicana Field. With eight of those games coming before the trade deadline, it’s fair to say the upcoming week likely will determine the Red Sox’s direction.
