Red Sox Notes: Alex Cora Defends Decision To Use Jake Diekman In Ninth Vs. Angels

The Boston Red Sox lost to the Los Angeles Angeles 10-5 in extra innings at Fenway Park on Wednesday. Despite the final score, the Sox led the game with two outs in the top of the ninth. From there, the bullpen completely unraveled.

Despite the bullpen allowing a combined seven runs (six earned) in the ninth and 10th innings, manager Alex Cora defended his decision to put in Jake Diekman to face Jared Walsh with a one-run lead and two outs in the ninth.

“We tried to get 27 outs,” Cora said as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I think we didn’t keep the ball in the ballpark, and then at the end, we walked a lot of people. We had the right matchup for the 27th out, and Walsh put (together) a pretty good at-bat, got a base hit and then after that we didn’t execute pitches. They’re a good offensive club. They hit the ball out of the ballpark, and they took advantage of that.

“We had (Mike) Trout 0-2 and we ended up walking him and then (Shohei) Ohtani, we walk him too. We got (Anthony) Rendon with a 2-1 slider, but you know it’s Walsh against Diekman, right there. You know that’s the matchup that we’ll take any time. You know, 3-2 slider, he fouled one off and then he got one and got a base hit.”

Diekman let the game-tying run cross the plate — which Robles was responsible for — with a walk and a hit but hindsight is 20-20 and the lefty-lefty matchup was favorable versus Walsh, who does not see the ball well against left-handed pitching.

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Here are some more notes from Red Sox-Angels:

— Matt Barnes’s fastball is down in velocity significantly from his career average.

“You got to keep working with him,” Cora said. “That’s the bottom line. He threw some good breaking balls. The fastball, it’s not there and it’s not a lack of work. He’s doing everything possible to get his mechanics where they’re supposed to be with (pitching coach David Bush and bullpen coach Kevin Walker). They’re all locked in with him. There are some good days and there are some days that the fastball is not there but we just got to keep working on it.”

— Barnes broke down what happened on the go-ahead home run he allowed.

“I threw a good 2-0 curveball,” Barnes said as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “And then I thought I threw a really good 2-1 curveball as well, really close. After he took the swing on the 2-0 curveball, the way he took the 2-1 curveball led me to believe he was sitting on it so I thought if I could get a good fastball away I’d be back in a 3-2 count then I can kind of go from there. Then I just left it up the middle.”

— The Red Sox have seven blown saves in 25 games.

— Garrett Whitlock has a 1.80 career ERA, the lowest in Red Sox history since the live-ball era started in 1920 (minimum of 90 innings pitched).

— Two stats show how frustrating the season has been for Boston. The last time the Red Sox won back-to-back games was on April 16 and 17. They also have played the most extra-inning games in the MLB and have lost all of them.

— The Red Sox will attempt to win the series in the final game of the three-game set with the Angels at Fenway Park on Thursday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET following an hour of pregame coverage, and you can watch it all on NESN.