Alex Cora on last Red Sox loss: “It was embarrassing”

A day after returning to the winning column, the Red Sox continued their slump, losing to Rangers 10-1 on Saturday.

The Red Sox performed poorly in all aspects. They had just five hits, one extra hit and three walks offensively. On the other side, the Red Sox pitchers allowed 17 hits, keeping three Rangers hitters walking throughout the game.

What was perhaps the ugliest part of the loss was Boston’s defense. The Red Sox made five mistakes in Saturday’s loss, and that doesn’t include Christian Vazquez who missed a tag at home to give the Rangers a run. Their base run was also poor, committing two outs on the base tracks.

This all happened against a Rangers team that was 42-80 in Saturday’s game and is the second-worst team in the American League.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora didn’t mince words when speaking to reporters after the game.

“Embarrassment is the word,” Cora said. “And it starts with me. Five mistakes, we didn’t run well, we didn’t put in good hitters. We didn’t pitch. In this thing, it’s a team effort, it starts with us, it starts with the coaches to continue to coach. We’ve been playing sloppy ball for a while and they continue to do so. So at some point we also have to be responsible.

“It was embarrassing today. It’s not acceptable. For a team fighting for the playoffs to come up like that and play like that, that’s not acceptable. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose the match, it’s how you win or lose the match and it’s not acceptable.

Red Sox starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez battled the worst offensive team in the American League. He allowed five earned runs on eight hits with three strikeouts and one walk while pitching just 3 2/3 innings.

Cora let Rodriguez’s performance speak for itself.

“There’s not much to say about him,” he said. “He wasn’t able to sideline people. He didn’t give us enough innings for us to win the game.

The Red Sox defense started to make mistakes in Rodriguez’s final round of the night. An awkward looking Brock Holt field single turned into him advancing to third base after Kiké Hernández’s home pitch jumped out of play. A bad shot from Xander Bogaerts from the Shortstop at first allowed a Rangers runner to score from second a few batters later.

“We’re not trying to make plays, we have to make plays,” Cora said of her team’s defense. “And we haven’t played for a while. We have a job to do. We need to play better, and today we didn’t play well. We didn’t play well, we deserve what happened today on the pitch.

After Saturday’s game, the Red Sox are losers in four of their last five games. Luckily for them, the Athletics lost to the Giants, so they remain a half a game away from the AL’s wildcard second place finish. However, if Boston can’t beat the teams it is supposed to beat after struggling to win against winning teams last month, the Red Sox can say goodbye to any hopes of a playoff spot. And Cora knows it.

“Today we took a few steps back,” Cora said. “Like I said, it’s not acceptable. We have to be better. It’s hard to watch. It’s hard for us. I hate the way we played today. I hate that. I know a lot of people praise me because I pay attention to details and stuff.

“Well, it’s not attention to detail. It’s not good, his baseball. It starts with ownership, doesn’t it? I am the manager of this team, therefore I am responsible. I have to do a better job of putting these guys in a better position to be successful.