On a day dedicated to the Baseball Hall of Fame's newest inductee David Ortiz, the Boston Red Sox were not at their best against the Toronto Blue Jays in a 8-4 defeat at Fenway Park on Sunday.
The Red Sox committed three errors in the contest and continued the sloppy play which has caused them to lose nine of their last 10 games, including a recent sweep against the Blue Jays. Boston now is 4-13 against the American League East during the month of July.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora was far from pleased following Boston's latest performance and made it known with his blunt take on the current struggles.
"We're playing .500 baseball. We're back to neutral. We're back to where we were April 8, right? I mean, the brand of baseball we're playing is awful," Cora said after the loss, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "We're not catching the ball. We're not putting good at bats. We're not throwing strikes. It's bad, it's really bad right now.
"... I think defensively we have taken a step back the last 14 days," he continued. "We were really good defensively early on. Yeah, we got moving parts, but you got to slow it down. Catch the ball, throw to the right base, don't panic out there. It seems like right now the game speeds up at one point in the game and it looks horrible."
Despite the criticisms, though, Cora did express the unwavering confidence he continues to have in the group.
"But we're talented," Cora said. "And we can turn around quick. It starts tomorrow. We got to show up tomorrow. We have to show up tomorrow and play good baseball. It starts with Nick (Pivetta) on the mound. Good at bats. Grind at bats, run the bases well, play good defense."
Here are more notes from Red Sox-Blue Jays:
-- Red Sox top pitching prospect Brayan Bello didn't help the group get off to the best start in his third career outing. Bello allowed five runs in the first inning, which Cora credited to more bad bounces rather than hard-hit balls, before holding the Blue Jays without a run for his final three innings of work.
"Overall, after that he was OK. A lot of traffic, a lot of weak contact, right?" Cora said. "Still learning but the stuff, like we said, it's still there."
-- Bello himself was disappointed, however. The 23-year-old now has allowed 14 earned runs on 22 hits in 12 combined innings across three starts.
"Yeah, I don't feel that good because things are not going how I hoped they would go by I just need to keep working during my starts and keep getting better," Bello said through a translator, as seen on NESN.
-- Cora provided injury updates on a handful of Red Sox players prior to Sunday's game. He expects J.D. Martinez to return Monday night when the Red Sox kick off their series against the Cleveland Guardians. It seems there's a light at the end of the tunnel for Trevor Story, Christian Arroyo and Kike Hernandez, as well.
-- Perhaps Red Sox fans can find a glimmer of sunshine with the induction of Ortiz on Sunday despite how the on-field product looked. Ortiz's speech certainly was one fans would love as he spoke highly about his career in Boston while sharing stories with teammates like Dustin Pedroia.
-- The Red Sox will return to Fenway Park on Monday when they host the Guardians. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET, and you can watch it live on NESN.
