It could be the current heatwave, but the offense from Boston Red Sox utility man Franchy Cordero has completely dried up.
Cordero’s brutal slump at the plate continued in Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park. Cordero filled in as Boston’s designed hitter with J.D. Martinez sidelined for a second straight game due to back spasms, but the 27-year-old went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts in his place.
Cordero is now hitless in his last 21 at-bats, and he’s not making much contact either, striking out 17 times over that span.
“I think today for the first time I saw him frustrated after swings,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “He’s not been able to stay on top of the fastball. They’re attacking him with that. Earlier in the season, he was taking those pitches. Now, he’s swinging at it. … It’s one of those where we got to keep working. He’s here and we just got to be better.”
There’s certainly no easy fix for Cordero’s struggles. Cora understands what the slumping left-handed hitter has to correct, as it seems Cordero is too caught up in his launch angle and trying to lift the ball instead of looking to make solid contact.
“He’s under the ball,” Cora said. “Early on when we got him when he went to Oakland, remember he was hitting line drives up the middle. Even when he came back, everything was line drives, and you can see now some mechanical issues he has going right now. He’s under everything.”
Despite Cordero’s offensive woes, Cora might be forced to keep him in the lineup while he tries to adjust the roster, due to the litany of injuries the Red Sox are dealing with.
