Trevor Story Disagreed With Alex Cora’s Take On Lopsided Loss

The Red Sox didn’t show up Monday night. There’s really no other way to put it.

Boston was dismantled by the Tampa Bay Rays to the tune of a 16-1 verdict at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Tanner Houck turned in the worst outing of his big league career and the Red Sox offense was held under four runs for the seventh time in their last eight games.

After Boston dipped to 8-10, Trevor Story was informed Alex Cora took the blame for the ugly loss and indicated he didn’t do a good enough job of preparing the visitors to play. That take did not receive a co-sign from the Red Sox shortstop.

“No, I mean, we’re the ones out there playing the game,” Story told reporters, per MLB.com. “There’s a certain pride when you wear this jersey. You’ve got to put it up. And we haven’t been doing that. We have to look ourselves in the mirror, and we’ve got to be honest with ourselves. There’s a lot of baseball to be played. We know the type of team that we have, and we can turn it around, I’m very confident in that.”

In theory, this week presents a good opportunity for Boston to turn things around. Tampa Bay played mediocre baseball over the first few weeks of the season and the Chicago White Sox, who will play four games at Fenway Park starting Friday, entered Tuesday as one of two MLB clubs with four wins or less. However, half of those triumphs by the South Siders were against Cora’s side over the weekend.

So, nothing will be handed to the Red Sox as they try to turn the tides. Boston will need to go out and earn it, and that mission begins Tuesday night when it meets Tampa Bay for the middle game of its series.

NESN’s full coverage of the division clash begins at 6 p.m. ET.