Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on May 2, 2022 3:56:21 GMT -5
Rain only delays the inevitable, as last-place Orioles slap around reeling Red Sox
By Tara Sullivan Globe Columnist,Updated May 1, 2022, 5:33 p.m.
BALTIMORE — Voice after voice among the Red Sox Sunday spoke of the team’s upcoming day off, a sure sign of how much everyone needs a break from baseball.
As if one day away from the game might solve the multitude of problems that plague this team.
Amid a locker room so quiet the sound of zippers being pulled across equipment bags rang out like an escape chorus, players moved quickly but somberly toward the exits, grateful this dismal 10-day road trip was over.
It being over is about the only good thing they can take out of it.
With their second straight loss to the Orioles, this one a 9-5 marathon interrupted by a two-hour, five-minute rain delay, the Red Sox limp back to Boston with one of the worst road trips in recent memory. Three cities, two countries, a vaccination distraction, a rain delay, three walkoff losses, back-to-back series on turf: Put it all together for a 3-7 record that dropped the team to 9-14 overall.
Any hope for finding the cure for their ills against the lowly Orioles faded quickly after Friday night’s victory, dying with the unfulfilled hope their slumbering bats would wake up.
“They need CPR, the bats,” catcher Christian Vázquez said. “We need to figure it out quick. We have a great team and everybody knows that the Red Sox are dangerous when they get hot.”
Belief in their baseball DNA is all the Sox have to fuel their optimism right now, with Sunday’s game showcasing so many of the same faults evident this season.
They couldn’t mount a sustained rally, couldn’t get a key hit, couldn’t get their starting pitcher out of the fifth inning, and couldn’t get enough shutdown innings from the bullpen. This one was not even as close as the score indicated, with J.D. Martinez adding a ninth-inning grand slam.
Catcher Kevin Plawecki pitched the previous inning for the Sox. That’s all you need to know about how lopsided this game was.
“A tough one,” manager Alex Cora said, “but it is what it is. Nothing has changed in our mind. We still got a good team that has to work. Do we have to work a little harder now? Yeah, of course. We’re still good. But like I told the guys, reset tomorrow, enjoy the families, do whatever you got to do to detach yourself from the game, and be ready for Tuesday. We got to get going.”
They had plenty of chances Sunday.
They threatened in the first inning against Baltimore starter Jordan Lyles, but left two runners on base. They threatened in the second with a two-out rally, but when Vázquez failed to run from second on contact — he admitted he thought there was only one out — on a Jaylin Davis single, they too were stranded by Trevor Story’s strikeout.
They threatened again in the third with another two-out rally, with a hit by Martinez, a walk to Franchy Cordero, and a hit-by-pitch of Kike Hernandez. But Jackie Bradley Jr. swung at the first pitch he saw, grounding out weakly to first base.
They threatened again in the fourth, when Davis hit a one-out single and Story drew his second walk of the day, but Rafael Devers, also swinging at the first pitch, grounded into an inning-ending double play
The Sox finally plated one run in the fifth inning on Cordero’s sacrifice fly, cashing in on Xander Bogaerts’ leadoff double. But there was no rally to be found. By the time they returned from the delay, down 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth, the Orioles feasted on overmatched reliever Phillips Valdez.
If April was horrible, as Cora had said on Saturday night, what do we make of May?
“One thing I would say is if we go through a stretch like this in June or July, it’s something that’s really common, but it gets so blown up at the start of the season,” Bogaerts said.
“There’s nothing you can look at to compare it to. This is just the amount of games we played. Anything you see now you say, ‘This is what the team is.’ It’s not like we played well for one whole month and then you’d be like there’s still hope they can get back to the team that they were. Everyone is looking at it that way. We haven’t even gotten everyone kicking on all cylinders. That’s the tough part, being in the first month of the season.
“When everyone gets hot at the same time, it’s going to be a beautiful thing to witness.”
By Tara Sullivan Globe Columnist,Updated May 1, 2022, 5:33 p.m.
BALTIMORE — Voice after voice among the Red Sox Sunday spoke of the team’s upcoming day off, a sure sign of how much everyone needs a break from baseball.
As if one day away from the game might solve the multitude of problems that plague this team.
Amid a locker room so quiet the sound of zippers being pulled across equipment bags rang out like an escape chorus, players moved quickly but somberly toward the exits, grateful this dismal 10-day road trip was over.
It being over is about the only good thing they can take out of it.
With their second straight loss to the Orioles, this one a 9-5 marathon interrupted by a two-hour, five-minute rain delay, the Red Sox limp back to Boston with one of the worst road trips in recent memory. Three cities, two countries, a vaccination distraction, a rain delay, three walkoff losses, back-to-back series on turf: Put it all together for a 3-7 record that dropped the team to 9-14 overall.
Any hope for finding the cure for their ills against the lowly Orioles faded quickly after Friday night’s victory, dying with the unfulfilled hope their slumbering bats would wake up.
“They need CPR, the bats,” catcher Christian Vázquez said. “We need to figure it out quick. We have a great team and everybody knows that the Red Sox are dangerous when they get hot.”
Belief in their baseball DNA is all the Sox have to fuel their optimism right now, with Sunday’s game showcasing so many of the same faults evident this season.
They couldn’t mount a sustained rally, couldn’t get a key hit, couldn’t get their starting pitcher out of the fifth inning, and couldn’t get enough shutdown innings from the bullpen. This one was not even as close as the score indicated, with J.D. Martinez adding a ninth-inning grand slam.
Catcher Kevin Plawecki pitched the previous inning for the Sox. That’s all you need to know about how lopsided this game was.
“A tough one,” manager Alex Cora said, “but it is what it is. Nothing has changed in our mind. We still got a good team that has to work. Do we have to work a little harder now? Yeah, of course. We’re still good. But like I told the guys, reset tomorrow, enjoy the families, do whatever you got to do to detach yourself from the game, and be ready for Tuesday. We got to get going.”
They had plenty of chances Sunday.
They threatened in the first inning against Baltimore starter Jordan Lyles, but left two runners on base. They threatened in the second with a two-out rally, but when Vázquez failed to run from second on contact — he admitted he thought there was only one out — on a Jaylin Davis single, they too were stranded by Trevor Story’s strikeout.
They threatened again in the third with another two-out rally, with a hit by Martinez, a walk to Franchy Cordero, and a hit-by-pitch of Kike Hernandez. But Jackie Bradley Jr. swung at the first pitch he saw, grounding out weakly to first base.
They threatened again in the fourth, when Davis hit a one-out single and Story drew his second walk of the day, but Rafael Devers, also swinging at the first pitch, grounded into an inning-ending double play
The Sox finally plated one run in the fifth inning on Cordero’s sacrifice fly, cashing in on Xander Bogaerts’ leadoff double. But there was no rally to be found. By the time they returned from the delay, down 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth, the Orioles feasted on overmatched reliever Phillips Valdez.
If April was horrible, as Cora had said on Saturday night, what do we make of May?
“One thing I would say is if we go through a stretch like this in June or July, it’s something that’s really common, but it gets so blown up at the start of the season,” Bogaerts said.
“There’s nothing you can look at to compare it to. This is just the amount of games we played. Anything you see now you say, ‘This is what the team is.’ It’s not like we played well for one whole month and then you’d be like there’s still hope they can get back to the team that they were. Everyone is looking at it that way. We haven’t even gotten everyone kicking on all cylinders. That’s the tough part, being in the first month of the season.
“When everyone gets hot at the same time, it’s going to be a beautiful thing to witness.”