‘I Have No Idea’: Alex Cora Hits Breaking Point In Latest Red Sox Loss

Red Sox manager Alex Cora has rarely, if ever, sounded like he did Tuesday night.

Boston lost once again to the Los Angeles Angels, this time in extra innings, 4-3 at Fenway Park. After the 17th one-run loss of the season, the Sox will try to salvage what’s left of the series and avoid the sweep Wednesday.

The series finale is a day game, which means Cora doesn’t have much time to seek answers after another disappointing game. Then again, the skipper sounds borderline defeated and might not find those answers no matter how hard he looks.

“We miss a cutoff guy, they score two, we hit the eighth hitter, we walked the ninth hitter, we didn’t execute a bunt play, we didn’t advance when we needed to. You talk about chances, I can tell you the chances we gave the opposition. We were lucky to be in that game at the end, to be honest with you,” Cora lamented in his postgame press conference, as seen on the team’s website.

At this point, with the Red Sox five games under .500 with fewer than 100 to play, the club risks losing its summer. The Angels now have a better record than Boston, and only three teams — the Orioles, A’s and White Sox — have a worse record in the American League than the Red Sox. Boston is now closer to the 19-42 White Sox than it is to the division-leading Yankees.

Cora admitted a lot of that falls on him.

“We keep making the same mistakes. We’re not getting better. At one point, it has to be on me, I guess, right? I’m the manager,” he added. “I’ve gotta keep pushing them. They’re not getting better. They’re not, you know? We keep making the same mistakes, same mistakes. I’ll be very honest about it, very open about it.

“You get frustrated but at one point, it’s like OK, what are we gonna do? What’s going to change? We keep doing the same thing, the same thing. We keep talking about one-run losses … and it’s the same thing, same thing. Is it effort? Preparation? Attention to detail? I have no idea. I watch that game, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is real.’ It’s frustrating.”

If this feels out of character for Cora, that’s because it is. NESN’s Tom Caron, who has been around the club for the entirety of Cora’s run(s) as manager, said on the postgame show this is the most negative he can remember the manager being during his time with the club.

There’s not much time to lament or reflect, either. The Red Sox have the finale with the Angels on Wednesday afternoon before heading to New York for a weekend series with the Yankees that opens Friday. That begins a stretch of 15 straight games against teams that currently have winning records.