Red Sox

Alex Cora on Red Sox’ latest loss: ‘That was embarrassing’

The Red Sox lost for the fourth time in five games on Saturday.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora was his team's biggest critic Saturday night. Barry Chin/Globe Staff

August 22, 2021

A day after getting back into the win column, the Red Sox continued their slump, losing to the Rangers 10-1 on Saturday.

The Red Sox performed poorly in all facets. They had just five hits, one extra-base hit, and three walks offensively. On the other end, Red Sox pitchers gave up 17 hits, walking three Rangers hitters throughout the game.

What may have been the ugliest part of the loss was Boston’s defense. The Red Sox committed five errors in Saturday’s loss, and that doesn’t include Christian Vazquez missing a tag at home plate to give the Rangers a run. Their baserunning was also bad, committing two outs on the basepaths.

All of this came against a Rangers team that was 42-80 entering 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.

“Embarrassing is the word,” Cora said. “And it starts from me. Five errors, we didn’t run the bases well, we didn’t put good at-bats. We didn’t pitch. In this thing, it’s a team effort, it starts with us, it starts with the coaches to keep coaching. We’ve been playing sloppy ball for a while and they keep doing it. So at one point, we’ve got to be accountable, too.

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

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

Cora let Rodriguez’s performance speak for itself.

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

The Red Sox’ defense began to commit errors in Rodriguez’s final inning of the night. An awkward-looking Brock Holt infield single turned into him advancing to third base after Kiké Hernández’s throw home hopped out of play. A poor Xander Bogaerts throw from shortstop to first allowed a Rangers runner to score from second a couple of batters later.

“We’re not in the business of ‘trying to make plays,’ we have to make plays,” Cora said of his team’s defense. “And we haven’t been making plays for a while. We have a job to do. We’ve got to play better, and today, we didn’t play good. We didn’t play good, we deserve what happened today on the field.”

Following Saturday’s game, the Red Sox are losers of four of their last five. Luckily for them, the Athletics lost to the Giants so they still remain a half-game out of the second AL wild card spot. However, if Boston can’t beat the teams it’s supposed to beat after struggling to win against winning teams for the last month, the Red Sox can kiss any hopes of a playoff spot goodbye. And Cora knows it.

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

“Well that’s not an attention to detail. That’s not good, sound baseball. It starts with ownership, right? I’m the manager of this team, so I’m accountable. I’ve got to do a better job to put these guys in a better position to be successful.”