Red Sox @ Blue Jays Game Thread/ August 6th-8th 2021

Red Sox manager Alex Cora stops mincing words after his team’s latest loss
By Peter Abraham Globe Staff,Updated August 5, 2021, 6:31 p.m.

DETROIT — Alex Cora has been around the Red Sox long enough as a player and now manager to understand how it works in Boston.

When times are tough and the dogs start howling, a manager’s job is to maintain the proper perspective and prod the beast of negativity back into its cage.

It was something one of his mentors, Terry Francona, had a flair for. Cora, who also spent four years working for ESPN, understands the power of his words.

For a week now, Cora has been deflecting the notion that the Sox are in a slump, pointing out that it’s a long season and dips are to be expected.

This is the same team that marched into first place, he said a few days ago. Cora was spinning like Nancy Kerrigan after some particularly bad games, but he gamely stayed on message.

That ended Thursday after a dispiriting 8-1 loss against the Detroit Tigers.


“I can put it plain and simple for everybody. I don’t think you guys have to ask many questions today,” Cora said. “We didn’t pitch; we didn’t play good defense; we didn’t hit.

“It wasn’t a good effort today. Where we’re at right now, we’ve got to get better, and that’s the bottom line.”

Cora didn’t stop there.

“For us to pull this off, we have to play better baseball overall,” he said. “It looks like right now we’re a step slower. We’re not moving well.

“I know we’re in August, right? It’s a grind. We have a good opportunity to play in October and we put ourselves in this situation. People can doubt us, or they can feel like this team can do it. But bottom line, we have to show up every day and play better.”

The Sox are 1-5 on their road trip down the standings and have dropped seven of nine overall. They lost two of three against the Tigers and now have four games over three days against the Blue Jays.


That Cora had little choice but to pull starter Martín Pérez in the second inning left him plenty of time to stew about the state of his team.

The Tigers scored five runs and struck out 31 times in the first two games of the series. But they had a home run, a double, and a triple in their first six plate appearances against Pérez.

Pérez pitched for the cycle — two singles, a double, a triple, and a homer — before he was taken out.

Pérez was 7-4 with a 3.89 ERA in his first 17 starts, the Sox winning 11 of those games. He is 0-4 with an 8.53 ERA over five games since, with the Sox winning once.

Like the Sox as a group, you wonder if Pérez’s first three months of the season were an illusion.

History suggests that’s the truth, at least for him. Pérez has a 5.06 ERA since 2017. This is who he is.

That the Sox emerged from the trade deadline with both Pérez and Garrett Richards still in their rotation feels more and more like a defining moment.
Related: It won’t get any easier for the slumping Red Sox in Toronto

Red Sox starters are 4-8 with a 5.50 ERA in 19 games since the All-Star Game. Thursday was the 11th time in that stretch when the starter didn’t complete five innings.

The Sox should get Chris Sale back next week after a two-year absence. How effective he will be after such a long layoff is impossible to say.

Rookie Tanner Houck, who has seven major league starts on his résumé, is scheduled to start the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader. Presumably he’s a good candidate to remain in the rotation.

The lineup hasn’t been much help, either. The Sox have scored 18 runs in the last seven games while going 7 of 57 with runners in scoring position.

As Cora said, the Sox are breaking down in all aspects of the game. Accountability, too.

It is customary throughout baseball for the starting pitcher to be made available to reporters after the game, and Pérez fulfilled that obligation.

Others were requested, but Pérez was the only player the Sox made available. With clubhouses still closed to the media, it’s easy to leave it to the manager.

How Rafael Devers feels is easy to decipher. He came up in the seventh inning with two runners and two outs and tapped a ground ball to second base.

He jogged to first base, walking the final few steps before taking his helmet off.

Devers appeared ready to fire it into the dirt but turned and dropped it gently on the ground while shaking his head.

It’s a scene that has become common.

“We have to figure this out,” Cora.

After taking three of four from Cleveland, it's time for Blue Jays to make statement against Red Sox
Author of the article:
Rob Longley
Publishing date:
Aug 05, 2021 • 5 hours ago • 4 minute read

On a Blue Jays team stacked with potential but still with much left to do, the first of what could be many big series down the stretch has arrived.


After a 3-0 win over the Cleveland Indians on Thursday night at the Rogers Centre, the Red Sox are due to arrive for a four-game weekend set beginning on Friday.

It may not be a series that decides the Jays’ fate, but it will be a telling tale of where the team fits in the early stages of what is starting to project as a compelling stretch drive.

Can the revamped Jays rotation hold up against a division rival well above them — although a margin that is rapidly narrowing — in the standings?

Can the bullpen get through a clutch series without wobbling and become a consistent strength rather than a question mark?

And can the electric offence produce against a Red Sox team that won’t have as vocal support as it did as the visiting team in Buffalo and will be living under a modified quarantine in Toronto?



Players will never place too much emphasis on a series in August, but now settled at home and poised to make its biggest winning run of the season to date, you can bet players are well aware of the looming significance.

“Of course,” Jays second baseman Marcus Semien said when asked about the conclusion of the first home stand here in almost two years. “Now you start to look at the standings a little more. I know we’re not in September yet and we don’t want to look at the standings every day, but we do know that we can gain ground if we get a win playing the team that you are chasing.”

Manager Charlie Montoyo and his staff certainly are treating the series with the respect it brings, manipulating the rotation to have their four best ready for the Red Sox. Alek Manoah will get it started on Friday followed by Robbie Ray and newcomer Jose Berrios for Saturday’s split doubleheader, leaving Hyun-Jin Ryu to finish things up on Sunday.



“Obviously we know who we’re playing. We’re fully aware of that,” said Thursday’s starter Ross Stripling, who threw six shutout innings at the Indians. “But it’s business as usual and understanding we’re back at the Rogers Centre. We love playing here and we have a huge advantage.

“Let’s keep that going and don’t worry about who is in the other dugout.”

Adding to the emphasis on the weekend’s series is the fact that the Jays are catching up to their division rival, a task helped by taking three of four from visiting Cleveland.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, have faltered of late, losing seven of their past 10, including an 8-1 drubbing to the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.

That slide has ceded the AL East lead to to the Rays and has brought both the Jays and Yankees into shouting distance of Boston, which is now just five games up on the Jays.

The trick for the Jays will be to turn what has been a decent run since returning to Toronto into a sustained one.

There’s no denying the Jays are heating up, however. Winners of eight of their past 10, they’ve improved their record to 57-49. Getting to eight games above .500 has been a long time in the making, a place they haven’t been since ending the 2016 season at 89-73.

Still, the Jays are well aware that to get into the post-season, it will take more than a seven-game hot streak. So is there a lengthy streak coming?

“I’ve been saying all along that I believe we can make a run,” said shortstop Bo Bichette, who drove in all three runs on Thursday, a pair of them on his 20th homer of the season. “Nothing changes. Try to win every game every day.”

During the first seven games of the homestand, Toronto starters have combined for a 1.25 ERA.

Boston Red Sox notebook: Ryan Brasier progressing toward season debut, is Martín Pérez’s rotation spot in jeopardy?
Updated 12:48 AM; Today 12:48 AM

By Chris Cotillo | ccotillo@MassLive.com

DETROIT -- Thursday’s blowout loss to the Tigers further exploited a vital flaw in the Red Sox’ offensive attack. Boston was 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in its 8-1 defeat, failing to capitalize on most of the opportunities it had against Detroit’s pitchers throughout the day.

Entering Thursday, the Sox ranked dead last in the majors in average with a runner on third base and less than two outs with a .236 mark. Considering that situation is one manager Alex Cora and the team’s hitting coaches have emphasized since spring training, it’s a clear source of frustration for the staff.

“We’ve been bad the whole season,” Cora said. “If you look at the numbers, it has been hard. Especially against lefties. I looked at it this morning and it’s like 48 at-bats or 50 at-bats in that situation and we have struck out more than half those at-bats. We’ve been preaching, we’ve been talking about it. But then at the end, we have to do it on the field. Maybe we’re trying too hard, maybe we have the wrong approach or maybe we’re giving them the wrong information. We have to figure it out. This is a good offensive team. This is a team that gets energy from the offense.”

As of Thursday morning, the Red Sox had scored the fifth most runs in the majors, though it’s clear they have let some chances go to waste recently. They have just seven hits in their last 57 at-bats with runners in scoring position over their last seven games.

“We’ve just got to get the confidence back and keep preparing like we have before,” said hitting coach Tim Hyers. “I know there’s some things that we’ve got to keep working on, some bad habits we have. We just have to keep trying to tackle them.”

Pérez’s struggles continue

Martín Pérez’s time in the rotation may be running short. The veteran lefty recorded just four outs Thursday afternoon, allowing three runs on five hits before Alex Cora came out for the early hook.

Pérez had a 2.22 ERA in an eight-start stretch from April 23 to June 3, only to follow it up with 6.69 mark in his next 10 starts. Since June 1, he has recorded six or fewer outs on three occasions; he has recorded an out in the fifth inning just once since July 6.

On Thursday, fastball command was the issue.

“In Martín’s case, there was some soft contact and there was some hard contact but there was a lot of traffic at that point,” Cora said, explaining his decision to pull Pérez after he gave up two singles and hit a batter to load the bases in the second. “We felt like Phillips (Valdez) was going to do the job and he did the job.”

Cora has managed Pérez’s outings aggressively all season, and his handling of the lefty has played a large role in the Sox going 12-10 in his first 22 outings. But now, with Chris Sale returning soon and Tanner Houck looking like a long-term rotation option, it might be time for a chance.

“Tomorrow is going to be Nate (Eovaldi),” Cora said. “We’ll go from there.”

Brasier’s progress encouraging

Reliever Ryan Brasier, who is working out with the WooSox, threw a live batting practice session Wednesday. The outing -- Brasier’s first against hitters since being hit in the head with a comebacker on June 4 -- marked an important step.

WooSox pitching coach Paul Abbott raved to Cora about how Brasier looked.

“(Abbott) was very excited, the fact that there were some swings and there was no hesitation,” Cora said. “We know what happened with him, so that was one of the hurdles, or obstacles, that we were a little bit worried about. There was no hesitation, which is good.”

According to Cora, Brasier will throw one more live BP session before going on a minor-league rehab assignment. That would be the last step before joining the Red Sox for Brasier, who fractured a finger during offseason workouts and strained his left calf at the end of spring training before his latest setback in June.

“What seemed like he was going to be part of this, late, late this season, it seems like it’s trending in the right direction, which is great,” Cora said.

Canada -- and its protocols -- await

On Thursday night, the Red Sox flew from Detroit to Toronto for their first series in Canada since Sept. 2019. Their upcoming series against the Blue Jays -- just the third in Toronto since it opened back up to the Blue Jays last Friday -- will come with more stringent COVID-19 protocols than the Sox have been facing in the United States.

Cora is hopeful his players will be careful and obey local ordinances, which are stricter than those found stateside.

“If you break protocols, it’s like $1 million you get fined or something like that,” Cora said. “Hopefully, the players understand that. We’ve got a doubleheader on (Saturday), we get in at a decent hour today. Day game on Sunday. We’ll probably do it the same way we did early in the season, like spending most of the time in the hotel. We’ll talk about it. There’s a few things we have to do before we get to the border. It’s just a business trip. It’s not that we’re going to go up there and hang out.”

Duran impressing with work ethic

Outfielder Jarren Duran hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire at the plate so far, going just 9-for-51 (.176) with 21 strikeouts in his first 53 plate appearances in the majors. Despite the lack of results, Cora has enjoyed having Duran on the roster since he was called up after the All-Star break.

“As far as work ethic and all that, he’s amazing,” Cora said. “He’s very structured. He understands what it takes to post everyday. He’s not playing every day, but he prepares himself. We’re very excited because of that. Other guys can actually learn from him, for him being such a young kid.”

Considering Duran had posted a .926 OPS in 219 plate appearances with the WooSox to start the year, the slow offensive start is a disappointment. Still, Cora believes the 24-year-old has made positive contributions in his first 17 games.

“On the field, he has been good defensively and has done a good job with that,” Cora said. “Obviously, we talk about the swings and misses but I think there’s always an adjustment period.

“You see the power, you see the speed,” Cora added. “Obviously, we keep talking to him about in certain situations, we have to make contact. Like everybody here on this team. So far, it has been solid. We like what we see and we know he’s going to contribute.”

If we ever need a statement game from Eovaldi, it'll be tonight.  Going into Detroit, I could easily have seen us losing 2 or 3 games.  The Tigers are for real and are playing well.  Same thing here.  TO is for real and playing well.  If the RS lose the first game, it could be a sweep.