Alex Cora on recent failed road trip: ‘It sucked, man. It was tough’
The Red Sox finished their six-game road trip with the Tigers and Mets with a record of 1-5 and have fallen further out of the wild card hunt, sitting 5 1/2 games behind the Royals.
The Sox were swept in their three-game series against the Mets, who won the finale, 8-3, at Citi Field Wednesday.
"It sucked, man. It was tough," Alex Cora told reporters. "We went to Detroit two and a half games back or three-and-a-half games back, and now we're five and a half. Right now we're just an average team. We got to show up on Friday and try to be better. It's a huge homestand."
It’s possible for the Red Sox to get back into contention, especially if they can string some wins together. As the calendar rapidly approaches the end of the season, it’ll be a tall order for the Sox to overtake the Royals or Twins.
Boston has just 22 games remaining and will play a crucial three-game series with the White Sox at Fenway Park this weekend. The Red Sox will need a series sweep or take two out of three from the worst team in baseball to remain in the hunt.
"We're a .500 team. We're playing .500 baseball. I don't think that's good enough," Cora said. "We got to be better."
While in New York, the Mets looked like a superior team. The entire offense was silent outside of Jarren Duran. All-Star slugger Rafael Devers entered the series finale 1-for-22 on the road trip.
Devers went 0-for-3 with an RBI sacrifice fly in the top of the third. He is batting .098 (4-for-41) since Aug. 21.
In the bottom of the first inning, the Mets started their scoring surge, which ultimately was the nail in the coffin. Francisco Lindor smacked a single into right field, extending his on-base streak to 33 games. Tanner Houck would walk the next batter, and that was followed by a Pete Alonso single.
Jesse Winker tattooed a 2-2 pitch from Houck, belting it opposite field over the left field wall for a grand slam. It was his 14th blast of the season.
“You just want to do your part,” Winker said to the New York media after the game. “I feel like every game I’ve been here has had a playoff vibe because they’re so meaningful to us.”
The All-Star pitcher settled down following the slam, but the offense wasn’t able to generate anything more than three runs.
Houck hurled five innings, giving up four earned runs off five hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. He dropped to 8-10 with a 3.24 ERA on the season.
"Felt like I got back into the zone, going right after hitters with my best stuff," Houck told reporters postgame. "First inning kind of got away from me in terms of the walk in there, falling behind hitters."
Kenley Jansen and Rich Hill stunk up Citi Park by walking a combined five batters in the bottom of the eight inning. The duo walked in three runs, including two bases-loaded walks from the veteran Hill.
“It’s hard,” said Jansen. “Definitely hard. Not the way we want to play.”
Boston is 17-27 with a negative-46 run differential in the second half. They have scored just eight runs in their past 45 innings. They have the second worst ERA (5.39) among major league teams in the second half. They’ve also committed 102 errors this year.
While Wednesday night and the past road trip "sucked," the Red Sox' play since the All-Star break has as well and is the reason they’ll likely miss the postseason after such a promising start and optimism following the break.
