Alex Cora Bluntly Criticizes Red Sox’s Late-Season Struggles

Alex Cora knows there's no way to sugarcoat what's going in with the Red Sox as the MLB regular season winds down.

Boston dropped its series opener in Tampa Bay on Tuesday night, which pushed the club below .500 for the first time since June 11. The Red Sox own an 8-16 record in their last 24 games and they entered Wednesday five games back of the final American League wild-card spot with 11 contests left on their schedule.

It's been a demoralizing slide for Cora's crew, and the World Series-winning manager didn't hide from it after Boston's latest defeat.

"It sucks," Cora told reporters at Tropicana Field, per MLB.com. "We've got three ways (we can be): average, below average, or above average, right? And right now we're below average. Like I've been saying all along, it’s not lack of effort. It's just not happening for us right now. It was just a bad one tonight."

At this point, one could argue Boston is playing for pride. The Red Sox also have a chance to play spoiler this weekend when they host the Minnesota Twins, who still are fighting for a postseason berth.

But in the meantime, Boston will resume its series in Tampa Bay on Wednesday. NESN's full coverage of the middle game begins at 5:30 p.m. ET.