Red Sox Notes: Boston Didn’t ‘Cash In’ Despite Chances Vs. Mets

The Boston Red Sox were haunted by a few squandered opportunities, marking their third consecutive loss to kick off a day-night doubleheader with the New York Mets at Fenway Park on Saturday.

Dropping right back to the bottom of the American League East, the Red Sox didn’t apply pressure on New York’s pitching when needed, making for some untimely sluggish offense and ultimately keeping Boston in the loss column.

“We didn’t make contact when we had to,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We had chances to cash in with a ground ball, put the ball in play with the infield back — we didn’t do that.”

The Red Sox finished just 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position but did escape a noteworthy jam in an effort to keep a comeback bid alive. In the eighth inning, Richard Bleier made it out of a no-out, bases-loaded pickle unscathed, keeping New York’s lead at just one run. Yet, it still wasn’t enough.

“It was a grind out there,” Cora explained. “They put the ball in play in a lot of situations, they did a good job. At the end, we turned double plays that kept us in the game.”

Boston has now gone 3-4 since coming out of the All-Star break, still struggling to reassemble the momentum that pushed the Red Sox to an 8-1 stretch before the Midsummer Classic.

“Overall in July, I haven’t really gotten a sense of how we’ve been playing,” Triston Casas said, per NESN. “Overall, we just go out, try to play hard every single game, but wins and losses they compile however they are. But we’re out there putting our tails on the line every single day and I think that’s what we care about in the locker room.”

Here are more notes from Game 1 of the Red Sox-Mets doubleheader:

— Boston is 2-14 when hosting National League teams at Fenway Park this season.

— Ahead of Game 2, the Red Sox added minor league pitcher Norwith Gudiño, calling the right-hander up from Triple-A Worcester after 20 pitching appearances, which have come as a starter and reliever.

“Gudiño, yeah. He’ll be here,” Cora announced, per NESN.

— Casas went 2-for-3, recording just the second triple of his career. In his last 26 games played, Casas has batted .329 (6-for-13) with a 1.006 OPS.

— Jarren Duran finished with two base knocks and is now hitting .432 (19-for-44) with eight doubles and three triples since June 11.

— The Red Sox and Mets play Game 2 of their day-night doubleheader on Saturday night. First pitch from Fenway Park is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, along with a full hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.