Red Sox Notes: Strikeouts Stand Out As Boston Bats Slump

The Boston Red Sox dropped the series against the Toronto Blue Jays with Wednesday’s 2-1 loss in 11 innings at Fenway Park.

Boston only has four runs to show in these three games after 36 runs last weekend against the St. Louis Cardinals, including 18 runs on Sunday Night Baseball. Boston continues to go down with runners in scoring position. The Red Sox struck out 14 times Wednesday night in what’s been the return of a recurring trend for the offense despite its run-scoring success in recent seasons.

“We didn’t cash in,” Alex Cora told reporters, per NESN’s postgame coverage. “… We’ve got to be better in that aspect.”

Kevin Gausman racked up 10 of those strikeouts on his own in his dominant start. The Red Sox could not catch up to his fastball and failed to put together productive innings at the plate in what’s been a streaky start to the season for the offense.

“When you’re behind in the count as a hitter, it just opens up so many different other pitches to go to,” Triston Casas told reporters. “Sometimes in an overly aggressive state because we as a team want to emphasize putting the ball in play. That’s how you score runs and win ballgames.”

The Red Sox went from the struggles of the series loss to the Texas Rangers to 11 runs in two games to take the series from the Baltimore Orioles. Now, they’ve followed a dominant sweep of the Cardinals with one-ninth of their offensive production through three games against Toronto.

“Just got to make adjustments,” Cora said. “We have to as a group. I trust our players. I trust this group. It’s one bad night. We’ve got to show up tomorrow and try to win a game.”

“We haven’t put together the same quality of at-bat,” Alex Bregman, who drove in Boston’s only run with a sacrifice fly, told reporters per NESN’s postgame coverage. “Look forward to tomorrow and trying to do that.”

Here are more notes from Wednesday’s Blue Jays-Red Sox game:

— Tanner Houck turned in his best start of the season so far after struggles in his first two outings. The 2024 All-Star tossed 6 2/3 innings with just one earned run on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts on just 90 pitches.

“For me, I felt a lot better in sync with my delivery,” Houck told reporters, per NESN’s postgame coverage.”

— The Red Sox played their first game since 1973 when both teams scored in the first inning then did not score again until extra innings, as referenced on the NESN broadcast.

— Boston ranks second in the American League with 66 runs scored this season, though the Red Sox have been held to two runs or less in five of their first 13 games.

— The Red Sox fell to 18-30 against the Blue Jays since the start of the 2022 season.

— The Red Sox close out the series with the Blue Jays and the homestand Thursday 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.