No team in Major League Baseball likes to drop three games in a row, especially during a pandemic-shortened season.
But that’s the situation the Red Sox currently find themselves in after falling 7-4 to the New York Mets at Fenway Park on Monday night. Boston now is 1-3 on the season, and with just 56 games left before the postseason, there’s plenty of work to be done.
Whether its fielding mistakes, silent bats or poor pitching, not much has gone the Sox’s way this season. All three issues were in the spotlight Monday as Boston dropped its third straight contest.
Xander Bogaerts put it perfectly after the game.
“It’s rough, to be honest. It’s tough,” the shortstop told reporters via Zoom, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Obviously, it’s not just like one run. It’s a couple runs, and then they just find a way to add on some more before we can kind of get something going. It kind of separated pretty quick by a couple of runs and it gets tough.”
Manager Ron Roenicke echoed those sentiments.
“It’s hard,” he said on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It’s hard any time you know you have a good offense but when you get down early soon every game, it’s hard to bounce back. I thought our guys did a good job hanging in there, (I) thought we hit a lot of balls hard, end up scoring four runs and Devers hit three balls hard today, that was good to see. So, we still did some good things offensively, but I understand what you’re saying. It’s hard when you get down right away.”
It oftentimes takes MLB teams several weeks, or even months, to get up to speed during a typical season. Of course, 2020 is anything but typical, making it difficult for teams like the Sox, who entered the season with a new manager in Roenicke, a depleted pitching staff and a lineup sans Mookie Betts.
With the season cut from 162 games to 60, there’s little room for error, and Boston knows it. There’s still plenty of time to get over the rocky start, but it’ll be a much bigger hole to climb out of than years past. That said, the Sox have shown flashes of brilliance early this season, proving the team has the talent to find success in 2020.
Whether the Sox can make the necessary adjustments in time, however, is the real question.
Here are some more notes from Monday’s Red Sox-Mets game:
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— The Sox made history Monday, but not in a good way.
Boston has allowed seven-plus runs in three of their first four games in 2020, including Monday’s loss to the Mets. This is the first time the team’s done this since — get ready — 1901, per The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier.
The Red Sox have allowed 7+ runs in 3 of their first 4 games for the first time since 1901.
— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) July 28, 2020
Yikes.
— Boston’s bats haven’t helped the cause, either.
The Sox have played 36 innings of baseball since beginning their season Friday night. In that time, they’ve led after just seven frames and trailed after 26, via NESN’s Tom Caron.
Red Sox have played 4 games (1-3.) They have led after 7 of those innings, and trailed after 26 of them. Tough to win games that way.
— Tom Caron (@TomCaron) July 28, 2020
Double yikes.
— Zack Godley, however, looked mighty solid.
The righty did some serious damage control midway through the game, giving up just four hits across four innings pitched, striking out an impressive seven batters in the process.
Roenicke said Godley has a chance at making the rotation, though he wouldn’t commit to it right away.
“We’ll talk about it and see how it matches up, but he’s certainly pitched well enough that that’s definitely a conversation we’re going to have,” Roenicke said.
— Boston will send Matt Hall to the mound Tuesday night for his regular-season debut with the Sox.
