Red Sox Notes: Boston Still Struggling To Make ‘Better Decisions’

The Boston Red Sox were handed their third consecutive loss on Tuesday night by the Miami Marlins at Fenway Park, but this time, it wasn’t even close.

From the very start, Miami came out and applied the pressure early on, scoring three times in the first inning, which sparked three multi-run rallies from the Marlins’ offense, leading to Boston’s 10-1 loss to being the three-game set.

“Decisions in the game, we gotta be smarter,” Red Sox skipper Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It’s on us to keep talking and keep preaching and keep showing them and hopefully we can start making better decisions out there.”

The loss dropped Boston to an even 40-40 record, placing the Red Sox 13 1/2 games out of the American League East race and keeping them three out of Wild Card contention.

“No more, no less,” Cora explained. “Like I said, we’re not great, we’re not bad. We are where we at. Obviously, we got a long ways to go. Tomorrow’s a halfway game of the season, right? And we just gotta be better, man. That’s the bottom line. We got a lot of work to do.”

Cora added: “When we play good defense, we win games. And when we give the opposition an extra 90 (feet), we don’t make plays, we don’t make double plays, we put ourselves in a bad spot.”

Coupled with a costly setback from Garrett Whitlock’s outing — pitching 4 2/3 innings while allowing six earned runs off 11 base hits — Boston was also put to rest by Marlins starter Sandy Alcántara, who held the Red Sox to just one run through seven innings.

That offensive output or lack thereof notched only the 13th run scored in Boston’s last six games, registering just 2.1 runs per contest through the 1-5 stretch.

“It’s just been a pretty big snowball effect both ways this year,” Triston Casas told reporters, per NESN. “We’re either really rolling well or things are not going so well. … It’s not for a lack of effort, it’s not for a lack of concentration. Like I keep saying, all our uniforms are dirty. We’re out there going hard.”

Here are more notes from Tuesday night’s Red Sox-Marlins game:

— The Red Sox have gone 1-5 in their last six games. The lineup is batting .198 while starting pitchers notching a 5.83 ERA.

— Boston is 2-11 this season when facing National League teams having registered a -22 run differential over the course of the rough 13-game run. In giving the Red Sox their 11th of the year, the Marlins also snagged their first victory at Fenway Park in 14 years, last winning in Boston on June 18, 2009.

“I think it’s a coincidence, I guess,” Cora said.

— There was a lack of clarity as to who would take the mound for Wednesday night’s matchup with the Marlins, however, Cora cleared the air and suggested that Kaleb Ort would start as the opener.

“We’re in a good spot in that aspect,” Cora said.

— Boston right-hander Tanner Houck underwent successful surgery to address his facial fracture suffered during his last start against the New York Yankees.

“He’s still in the hospital, so we’ll know more tomorrow,” Cora revealed.

— The Red Sox will continue their three-game series with the Marlins on Wednesday night. First pitch from Fenway Park is set for 7:10 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, along with a full hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.