Alex Cora Addresses Red Sox Defensive Miscues In Loss To Mariners

Defensive issues have plagued the Boston Red Sox throughout the season, and they popped up again Wednesday in Seattle.

The Red Sox had two defensive miscues in the seventh inning, letting the Mariners to pile on four runs in the frame to take a 6-3 win at T-Mobile Park and end Boston’s West Coast road trip on a sour note.

Both of Boston’s mistakes in the field directly led to Mariners runs. The first came when Seattle star Julio Rodríguez hit a broken-bat grounder between third and shortstop. Rafael Devers and Yu Chang collided trying to make the play as the ball rolled past each of them and into the outfield to allow the go-ahead run scored.

“They have to talk about it,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “If I’m the shortstop, I would have asked for it. They got, too. But it’s loud, the bat is flying, everybody is trying to make a play with it.”

Cora didn’t lament Devers or Chang from both looking to field the in-between grounder, but the skippers knows there needed to be better communication from both of them to pull off the play.

“As a shortstop, third baseman, I don’t mind guys going after it,” Cora said. “Effort, you can’t question that from them. Both guys were trying to make a play. Communication has to be better. I can’t say, ‘Hey, don’t go after it.’ The effort was there, communication wasn’t there.”

The Red Sox had another mishap a few batters later on a double steal attempt. Seattle had runners on the corners with two outs and Eugenio Suárez made it look like he was swiping second. Connor Wong threw down, but Suárez back tracked as Rodríguez broke for home.

Wong’s throw to Christian Arroyo short hopped and the return throw back to the plate was late as Rodríguez slid in for a steal of home.

Neither play was ruled an error, but the defensive mistakes have continued to cost the Red Sox dearly this season. They entered play Wednesday leading the majors in errors with 74.

“We’ve been talking about defense all season,” Cora said. “You see us work before games. We’ve been talking about defense since spring training. At the end of the day, we have to make plays, right? We’ll go over it on Friday, talk about what happened and try to move on.”

Cora added: “We’re working. It hasn’t been pretty certain days or stretches. But we’ll keep working at it and we have to get better.”