For a stretch it looked like the Red Sox had saved their season. Now it appears to be slipping away again.
The Red Sox lost their sixth straight game on Friday, falling in yet another punchless showing 9-0 to the Toronto Blue Jays. The lineup managed only four hits and never came close to sustaining any sort of offensive rhythm, tallying just three at bats with runners in scoring position while going 0 for 3.
As a result, the Red Sox now sit three games under .500 at 40-43. Nearly all of the ground gained over the club’s mid-June hot streak has been lost.
“It’s been going on for a while, even before the road trip, we grinded some games, winning 2-0, 3-1, and that’s part of the season, you’re going to do that,” Cora said of the club’s recent struggles, particularly on offense. “But we have to be better.”
The six-game losing streak is Boston’s longest of the season and the club’s longest since 2022, when the Red Sox lost six straight from Sept. 21-26. The Red Sox haven’t lost seven or more consecutive games since 2020, when the club lost nine straight from Aug. 10-18.
Following the game, outfielder Jarren Duran acknowledged that the team has been pressing.
“I feel like we’re putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to score a bunch of runs every single day, and when we’re at our best we’re just stringing at bats together and passing the baton,” Duran said. “And right now I feel like we’re looking for that one big hit like a homer or something.
“It feels a little tense right now but that’s just part of it,” he added later. “We’re grinding right now.”
The Blue Jays broke the ice in the top of the first, getting three straight baserunners against Brayan Bello after the Red Sox starter initially recorded two quick outs. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled, stole second and eventually came home to score on George Springer’s RBI single.
Guerrero was initially ruled out on a close play at the plate, but the call was overturned on review to put Toronto up 1-0.
Toronto kept applying pressure from there, getting two men on to lead off the second before Bo Bichette extended the lead with an RBI single. Bello already had 52 pitches by the end of the inning, and the Blue Jays tacked on another run in the third on an Ernie Clement RBI single.
Bello was able to escape without further damage despite three hits in the frame thanks to an inning-ending pickoff by Connor Wong to nail Andres Gimenez at first.
Inefficient as he was for long stretches, Bello still wound up posting his fifth consecutive quality start. He allowed three runs on eight hits with two walks and only one strikeout, but retired nine of the last 11 batters he faced.
“Obviously I didn’t have my best stuff today, I was battling out there, fighting every single batter,” Bello said via translator Carlos Villoria Benítez. “And I know the first couple of innings were long but I was able to get quick outs the second half of the game.”
“I made the point after the outing, I said take a look at the scoreboard, one bad days, that should be you right there, you did a good job for us,” Cora said of Bello. “A lot of traffic and it looked actually worse than it was, but it was six innings, three runs.”
The trouble, as has often been the case recently, was the offense.
Since trading Rafael Devers to San Francisco on June 15, the Red Sox have averaged 3.1 runs per game over their last nine games, which ranked fourth-worst in MLB over that stretch behind only the Royals, Guardians and Athletics. Friday brought more of the same, with the lineup offering little resistance against Blue Jays right-hander Jose Berrios.
Berrios carved Boston up for eight strikeouts over seven scoreless innings, allowing four hits and a walk while drawing 14 Red Sox whiffs. Boston only had two baserunners advance past first base against the Blue Jays starter, once on Roman Anthony’s ground rule double in the first and later in the fifth when Ceddanne Rafaela singled and reached second on David Hamilton’s ensuing walk.
Other than that, the Red Sox never stood a chance.
Toronto extended its lead to 9-0 by scoring two runs in the seventh and four runs in the eighth, aided in large part by five walks over those two innings, four issued by Brennan Bernardino. The Red Sox pitching staff collectively issued eight walks, marking the third time this week the club has allowed that many free passes.
Prior to June 20 the club had only done so once all season.
“Not great. We preach first pitch strikes and get ahead, stay ahead, and we haven’t done that,” Cora said. “At this level when we talk about defense you give extra outs you’re going to pay the price, and same thing with walks.”
Position player Nate Eaton pitched the top of the ninth for Boston, and by the time it was over the Blue Jays wound up outhitting the Red Sox 16-4. Toronto now owns a 6-2 advantage over Boston in the season series, and the Red Sox will look to bounce back and snap their skid on Saturday when Lucas Giolito (3-1, 4.53) takes the mound against Chris Bassitt (7-3, 3.61).
“I’m not too worried about this group,” Duran said “We know what we can do and we know how to bounce back.”
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