Alex Cora Fed Up Following Aching Loss To Angels

Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora is losing patience with the ongoing trend of underperformance that’s dragged the club night after night.

This time, while hosting the (always) subpar Los Angeles Angels at Fenway Park, Cora’s crew fumbled another chance at getting back in the win column. Instead, the Red Sox left 11 runners on base and went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, which, without watching the game, tells the whole story. Boston had its chances, and Boston squandered its chances, allowing LA to go back-to-back ahead of the series finale.

Cora took a long look in the mirror when struggling to explain the mess left on the field by the Red Sox for fans to endure.

“We keep making the same mistakes. We’re not getting better,” Cora told reporters following Tuesday night’s 4-3 loss in extra innings, per NESN. “At one point, it has to be on me, I guess, right? I’m the manager, so I gotta keep pushing them to be better. They’re not getting better. They’re not, you know. We keep making the same mistakes, same mistakes. I’ll be very honest about it, very open about it, you know, you get frustrated. But at what point is it like, ‘OK, what’re you gonna do? What’s gonna change?’ Because we keep doing the same thing, same thing.”

It’s coming down to the fundamentals for the Red Sox — fielding routine plays, situational hitting and base-running. We’ve now arrived at June, and the same mistakes that were made in March/April continue to haunt Boston in games filled with chances to capitalize. The Angels didn’t run circles around the Red Sox; they just cashed in at the right time, and those opportunities were up for grabs for both teams.

Brayan Bello went six innings while allowing three earned runs — all in the third inning — off seven hits, striking out three. It was an outing good enough to keep the Red Sox in the ballgame and within reach of evening up the series to set up a rubber match for Wednesday afternoon’s finale.

Even in the bottom of the ninth, Boston had a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket opportunity when Angels closer Kenley Jansen walked Kristian Campbell, the lead-off man. Cora pinch ran David Hamilton, who stole second, but when Jarren Duran flew out to deep center field, Hamilton didn’t tag up and race to third base.

Boston stranded Hamilton — who later stole third — in scoring position as Wilyer Abreu (strikeout) and Romy González (ground out) both failed to seal the deal.

“I have no idea now,” Cora said. “I watched that game, I was like, ‘Wow, this is real.’ It’s frustrating.”

The Red Sox will look to avoid being swept for the second time in their last three series before hitting the road for a weekend series against the New York Yankees.

Here are more notes from Tuesday night’s Red Sox-Angels game:

— Boston, now 29-34 this season, leads all big league teams in one-run (17) and extra-inning (seven) losses. The club, still fourth in the American League East, sits just 4 1/2 games ahead of the last-place Baltimore Orioles.

“Yeah, obviously it’s very difficult, but I feel we need to make an adjustment,” Bello told reporters through team translator Carlos Villoria-Benitez, per NESN.

Bello added: “Win (is the adjustment).”

— Red Sox outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela went 3-for-5 with a home run, a double and two RBIs to extend his hitting streak to seven games. The 24-year-old is hitting .448 with three home runs, two doubles and five RBIs amid the hot stretch.

— The Red Sox committed three errors on Tuesday night, raising their season total to 50, which still leads the AL. The club is just one error shy of tying the 11-50 Colorado Rockies to overtake them as the worst defensive team in baseball.

— Boston has gone 3-8 since starting third baseman Alex Bregman suffered his strained right quad injury on May 23.

— The Red Sox and Angels will wrap up their three-game series on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch from Fenway Park is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus a full hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.