Red Sox Notes: ‘Bad Inning’ Helps Cubs Hand James Paxton Loss

The Red Sox fell short to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Saturday, 10-4, suffering from some pitching and fielding struggles.

Red Sox starting pitcher James Paxton gave up six runs in the third inning, including a grand slam to Cubs center fielder Cody Bellinger.

Paxton reflected on his outing following the loss, and he seems ready to move past the tough day.

“I got myself into some bad counts and left some balls over the middle of the plate, and they did damage,” Paxton told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I’m not gonna make any excuses. Maybe that’s part of it, who knows. But I gotta be better. I’ll figure out what I need to do and do that and keep on going here.

“It’s not my first bad game. It won’t be my last. You’re gonna have these starts in the season. It’s all about what you do to get back to doing what you want to do out there. We all fail at times, and it’s more about how you deal with failure than the failure itself.”

Boston manager Alex Cora also discussed Paxton’s performance on NESN’s postgame coverage.

“Just missed control. The two walks and the hit by a pitch. That doesn’t happen very often, but he’s human like all of us. Just a bad inning.”

Red Sox catcher Connor Wong also spoke about Paxton’s day on the mound.

“He’s been really good for us all year,” Wong told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Stuff like this happens. Some days you don’t have it. … There’s probably some close pitches here and there. He struggled consistently to find it.”

Here are more notes from Saturday afternoon’s Red Sox-Cubs game:

— Cora also reflected on Boston’s struggles at the plate against Chicago pitcher Marcus Stroman.

“They were pretty good at-bats. He had the lead and he started throwing strikes, but I think we did a pretty good job controlling the zone.”

— Wong and Cora discussed the catcher’s dropped ball on a throw from third baseman Rafael Devers that contributed to Chicago’s six-run inning.

“Just gotta catch the ball and then get the guy out in the rundown,” Wong said. “Ideally that throw’s on the inside lane, but it wasn’t. But I don’t think that’s an excuse for not catching the ball. It honestly wasn’t that bad of a throw.”

“We miss the ball at the plate,” the manager said. “We get that double play, it’s only one run, then we’re one pitch away from getting out of the inning.”

— Cora and the Red Sox look to turn things around in their final matchup of the series with Chicago on Sunday.

“It’s just one game. People make a big deal out of one game,” Cora said. “We’ll show up tomorrow and play good baseball.”

— The Red Sox and Cubs will finish their three-game series Sunday at Wrigley Field. First pitch is set for 2:20 p.m. ET, and you can catch the game as well as an hour of pregame coverage on NESN.