The Red Sox were shut out in Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night, but it wasn’t because they couldn’t generate baserunners.
Boston was 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. The Red Sox loaded the bases in the eighth and never scored and all of their nine hits were singles.
Long story short: They squandered their chances.
“Yeah, we had traffic out there, and we just didn’t cash in,” manager Alex Cora told reporters after the game, via MLB.com’s Ian Browne. “Bobby (Dalbec) hit a few missiles with men on. Obviously, in the eighth we load the bases; we didn’t score. There were some good at-bats in the middle of the game, grind at-bats. Others were kind of empty, but I think overall we did a good job hitting line drives and staying in the middle of the field.”
Christian Arroyo echoed his manager’s sentiments.
“Obviously, situations like this, you have to score runners,” Arroyo told reporters. “As an offense, I thought we did a good job of getting our knocks, but you’ve got to have that (big) blow, you know?”
The Red Sox will need to be patient at the plate if they want to even the series at one game apiece and figure out how to push runs across when given the opportunity. Because at the end of the day, even good hits go to waste if they can’t generate runs.
Game 2 is set for 7:02 p.m. ET.
