Alex Cora Sees Progress With Red Sox At-Bats, Defense

With returning players and the need to adjust in the season’s second half, the Red Sox grinded at-bats and showed better defense in Tuesday’s 5-4 win over the Washington Nationals.

Boston put together quality at-bats from the first batter of the night, as Alex Verdugo worked from a two-strike count to blast a leadoff home run to put the Red Sox in front.

“Overall, we grinded at-bats,” manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We took our walks. We did enough to win the game. I think we did a good job controlling the strike zone.”

The offense did just that again in the third inning, forcing Washington starter Josiah Gray to toss over 30 pitches in an inning for the second time in the game. With the bases loaded and two outs, Triston Casas roped a full-count pitch to right field for a two-run single to extend the lead.

“The offense did a tremendous job of picking me up when they needed to,” Nick Pivetta told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage.

One improvement the Red Sox will need to make is in baserunning decisions. Reese McGuire was thrown out at second on a fly ball to center field. Boston is just over a week removed from losing to the Toronto Blue Jays when McGuire was also doubled up to end the game.

“We made a bad baserunning mistake and then we got lucky with the wild pitch,” Cora said. “We can’t do that. We went from bases loaded and no one out to a man on third and two outs. We cannot do that. There’s no more excuses about that.”

For a Boston team that led the league in errors entering play, the left side of the infield picked up the Red Sox in the late innings. Trevor Story made a key play fading away and Casas finished the play on the other end with a clean scoop on the throw.

In the eighth inning, Rafael Devers made a key pick and throw to end the inning on a ball deep in the hole.

“We played good defense,” Cora said. “The play with Trevor (Story) to his right and the play with Raffy (Devers) in the eighth. Overall, a good one.”

Boston did enough of the little things right Tuesday to earn the win and worked a pattern that the ball club must consistently follow with an uphill climb in a playoff push.