Nothing is going right for the Boston Red Sox at the moment.
Losers of six straight, with the most recent setback being an ugly one to the New York Yankees on Saturday afternoon in the matinee of a day-night doubleheader, the Sox have put themselves in a pretty tough spot.
And as such, they needed to talk.
Multiple players confirmed to the media after Saturday afternoon’s loss that they had a players-only meeting following the game. Sox manager Alex Cora said Thursday that he was going to have an uncommon closed-door meeting with the team before Friday’s game, but then said Friday that no such meeting was held and that the significance was overstated by the press.
Chris Sale, who had a frustrating afternoon, shed some light on the meeting.
“Yeah, we just got to find a way,” Sale said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We’ve got a couple months left and we’ve got to have each other’s backs and find a way to grind through it and get where we need to be.
“When things get bumpy, you’ve got to address it. We care about each other in here. Obviously, we’re not playing the way we want but we take a lot of pride and we respect each other and we love each other. We grind together, we win together, we lose together. And when something comes up and someone has something to say, we have enough respect and love for each other to get together as a group and go over some things. That’s just how it goes.”
Mookie Betts also confirmed that a meeting took place.
“Just sharing ideas,” Betts said. “Everybody’s frustrated. We all understand it’s a major-league season. It’s tough, not every year is going to be like last year.”
The Red Sox have a chance to straighten things out Saturday evening, with the nightcap set to take place at 7:05 p.m. ET.
