Red Sox Notes: Alex Cora Gives Credit To Tigers Pitcher After Tough Loss

The Boston Red Sox fell to the Detroit Tigers by a final score of 3-1 to open their second road series of the season on Monday.

The reason for the loss was clear, the Red Sox offense did not come to play. Boston’s lone run was produced by J.D. Martinez, who hit a 413-foot home run to break up Tigers starter Matt Manning’s perfect game through four.

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Red Sox manager Alex Cora did not place blame on outside factors and instead decided to credit the young right-handed pitcher opposing the Sox.

“This is not about traveling or whatever,” Cora told reporters after the game. “It’s more about that guy pitching and the guys that came in.”

Cora said that Manning’s velocity was one reason for the Red Sox offensive struggles.

“His fastball played better than expected,” Cora said on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It was getting on you, he has plus extension and then his velocity started picking up. When you see us hitting fly balls and fouling off fastballs up in the zone, then the fastball is getting on you.”

Manning allowed just one hit in six innings, which set the tone for a lackluster offensive performance for Boston. Martinez was the only one who made solid contact off of the 24-year-old pitcher but still showed respect for his outing.

“He kept us off-balance, did a really good job,” Martinez said as part of NESN’s postgame coverage. “He had really good ride on his fastball, just gave us trouble.”

Here are some other notes from Red Sox-Tigers:

— Story is not expected to return to the lineup on Tuesday. The series finale on Wednesday appears to be the target return date as he battles an illness.

“He feels weak,” Cora said. Hopefully, he can come here tomorrow and get moving around. I’m not sure he’s going to play tomorrow. We’re trying to shoot for the last day of the series.”

— Matt Barnes made his first appearance of the season. He pitched one inning, allowed a hit and recorded one strikeout. Cora was pleased with his outing.

“There was a fastball there at 95 (mph) which is good,” Cora said. “The breaking ball played, good pitches on (Jonathan Schoop), Miggy (Cabrera) didn’t hit the ball hard. I was joking that he hasn’t seen the sixth inning since the All-Star game, right.”

— Michael Wacha recapped his first start as a member of the Red Sox.

“It’s kind of frustrating for me, giving them a couple free passes there, leading to a run,” Wacha said as part of NESN’s postgame coverage. “But felt like I settled in pretty well after that. Started to be a little more efficient.

“I was able to get ahead (in the count) and then get some weak contact, let the defense play behind me and it ended up being alright but I wish I would’ve been able to get a little bit deeper (in the game).

— Martinez thinks shortened spring training provides a potential explanation behind Boston’s slow start offensively.

“I don’t want to say any excuses or anything, but it’s one of those things where we are still three weeks behind our normal build up,” Martinez said.

The Red Sox will look to get back on track in the second game of the series against the Tigers in Detroit at 1:10 p.m. ET.