Red Sox Notes: Boston Fighting To ‘Eliminate’ Recurring Mistakes

The Boston Red Sox are yet to win a home game this season as the offense and particularly infield defense struggled to support the starting pitching staff.

Instead of taking the chance to shake off a series sweep against the Baltimore Orioles, the Red Sox suffered a 7-0 shutout loss to the Los Angeles Angels at Fenway Park on Friday. Boston extended the league lead in errors and unearned runs allowed. That started in the first inning when David Hamilton and Pablo Reyes could not connect on a pair of potential double-play balls, leading to three early runs.

“Double plays are game-changers and momentum-changers,” Alex Cora told reporters after the loss, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “If you turn them, the momentum turns to you. If you don’t turn them, the momentum stays with them. That’s what happened.”

Ceddanne Rafaela followed that up when his cut-off throw short-hopped Triston Casas and rolled away, leading to another Los Angeles run. Those Red Sox mistakes are the ones Cora believes must be the priority in stopping.

“Those are the ones that really bother me,” Cora said. “The physical ones are part of it. We will make mistakes. We will make errors. I’ve made errors. The other ones are the ones we have to eliminate. The mental ones.”

The tough defense put Tanner Houck in poor position to succeed, allowing 12 hits and seven runs in 5 2/3 innings after two dominant outings to start his season.

“Felt like I didn’t have the same bite as the last outings,” Houck told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage.

Falling back to 7-7, cleaning up the defense is the ultimate precursor to turning the tides on a recent slump for the Red Sox.

“We work so hard to get it done,” Cora added. “We have to do it at 7:05.”

“Flush it tonight, tomorrow’s a new day,” Houck said. “New sunrise. Try to put in work.”

Here are more notes from Friday’s Angels-Red Sox game:

— The Red Sox moves to 2-2 against the Angels this season.

— Boston moves to 27-8 all-time in their yellow City Connect uniforms after the 2024 debut of the jerseys on Friday night.

— The Red Sox entered play tied for second in baseball with 13 errors and made three more in the loss. Boston also leads the league with 19 unearned runs allowed.

— Jarren Duran reached base twice for the third-straight game after tallying a pair of two-hit games to close out the series against the Baltimore Orioles earlier in the week.

— Cora added that Boston will “probably stay away” from playing Rafael Devers again on Saturday as he works through shoulder soreness, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage.

— Four games in, Boston still searches for its first win at Fenway Park in 2024.

“We don’t like losing, especially in front of our home fans,” Tyler O’Neill told reporters after the loss, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It’s no fun. We want to put up more of a fight than we are right now.”

— The Red Sox continue the three-game set with the Angels on Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park. First pitch is set for 4:10 p.m. ET. You can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.