Red Sox Notes: Alex Cora Evaluates Flaws Following Brutal Loss To Rays

The Boston Red Sox took on the Tampa Bay Rays for the first time this season Monday night, and the team hit a new season low.

It took the Red Sox nearly half an hour (27 minutes and 20 seconds to be exact) to make it out of the third inning. By then, the Rays had plated nine runs off eight hits as 14 batters cycled through the order. There was plenty of baseball left to play at that point, but Boston had nothing in its tank to offer Tampa Bay and as a result, the Red Sox walked off George M. Steinbrenner Field with an awful 16-1 defeat.

“There was a team that was prepared for the other one, and the other one wasn’t prepared for them,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters postgame, per NESN. “And that goes from the top all the way to the bottom. That wasn’t a good night for us, and I’ll take the blame because it seemed like our team wasn’t ready to go.”

Tampa Bay’s lineup ran Boston right-hander Tanner Houck off the mound after just 2 1/3 innings of work. Houck was charged with 11 earned runs off 10 hits — including two home runs — and two walks with one strikeout, and the career-worst outing inflated the 28-year-old’s ERA to 9.16 when it was all said and done.

There was no easy way to sugarcoat it. The Red Sox had played one of their worst games under Cora’s reign and the team’s leader made sure to hold the clubhouse accountable. Cora acknowledged that the series opener against the Rays wasn’t anything new, but instead an extension of an ongoing problem.

“We have to be better. We know that, and I said it from Day 1,” Cora said. “For us to be where we want to be, we have to be consistent in the things that we do. And honestly, we’ve been consistently bad the last 10 days.”

The Red Sox entered the division-rival set fresh off dodging a sweep against the Chicago White Sox — after opening that series by giving up 11 runs to the same team that lost 121 games last season. Garrett Crochet’s deep no-hit bid made that effort immensely easier, yet the momentum didn’t translate.

“Our brand of baseball has been real sloppy on both sides,” Trevor Story told reporters, per NESN. “So, it’s hard to win when you’re not playing well on defense and we’re not stringing our bats together. Obviously a tough stretch and we know the type of team we have. We’re not playing to our capability and we do know that there’s a lot, a lot of baseball to be played left so we’re not gonna sit here and dwell over it.”

Boston has gone 2-6 over its last eight games, all while getting outscored by opponents, 48-15, throughout the stretch.

Here are more notes from Monday night’s Red Sox-Rays game:

— Red Sox pitching allowed 16 runs off 16 hits, including four home runs and two doubles. It was the most runs allowed by Boston since its equally ugly 20-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies on July 24 of last season.

“Not gonna overanalyze it tonight,” Houck told reporters, per NESN. “Gonna come back tomorrow and talk it over.”

— Boston’s 14 strikeouts marked a season-high, as did the four home runs allowed.

— Rookie Kristian Campbell was the lone silver lining to come from the offense. The 23-year-old went 2-for-3 with his third home run of the season.

— Tampa Bay starter Shane Baz shut down Boston’s offense, allowing one earned run off two hits across six innings with 11 strikeouts. The right-hander improved to a career 3-0 with a 2.37 ERA in three starts logged against the Red Sox.

— Boston is leading all of MLB in errors (18) and strikeouts (179) through its first 18 games played, all while surrendering 31 runs to opponents throughout the first four games of the six-game road trip.

“Baseball’s a game of momentum, and it can sway one way or the other,” Story said. “We just gotta find a way to compete, just make it about that. That’s both offensively and defensively, and we gotta do it over nine innings. I just think we haven’t put full games together.”

— The Red Sox and Rays will continue their three-game set Tuesday night. First pitch from George M. Steinbrenner Field is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET, and you can catch the game, plus a full hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.