The Boston Red Sox picked a bad time to have a down day at the plate in what eventually turned out to be a 4-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday.
The Red Sox mustered just three hits in the contest -- two of which came from Hunter Renfroe. Boston, who left three runners on base, was retired in order during the fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora shared the number of reasons behind Boston's struggles offensively.
"Offensively we didn't do much. There were a lot of empty at bats," Cora said on a postgame video conference. "We didn't put pressure on them and we're an offensive team. We're a lot better than what we showed today -- a lot of quick outs. There were only a few at bats that we grinded out. And we got deep into counts but there were a lot of quick outs. We need to be better offensively.
"We're a lot better than that, a lot better," Cora added. "We didn't use the whole field either. And like I said we didn't get into too many deep counts. We didn't do a good enough job offensively to grind and put pressure on all their pitches and you saw the results. ... We're really good when we go up the middle, when we go the other way, obviously when there's traffic we do a better job, and tonight we didn't do that."
Boston maintains a one game lead for the second wild-card spot after the New York Yankees defeated the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday. The Red Sox will look to put those offensive struggles behind them as they return to the diamond Wednesday against the Orioles.
