Time to face facts: There’s no hope for these Red Sox
The Red Sox had hope for a precious few minutes on Thursday afternoon. But hope can be a dangerous thing.
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Back-to-back home runs by the unlikely combination of Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Caleb Durbin had tied the score against the Blue Jays in the eighth inning.
Fenway Park had felt more like a karaoke bar than a ballpark this week, thanks to all the singing Scottish soccer fans. But suddenly everybody was riveted on the game and what could happen.
A team that hasn’t had many encouraging moments this season seemed close to one.
“It felt that way,” interim manager Chad Tracy said.
Instead, disaster. With a runner on first base in the ninth inning, Aroldis Chapman got two outs and seemingly a third when Brandon Valenzuela hit a foul popup behind home plate.
Catcher Connor Wong was under the ball before the wind pushed it up the third base line. Durbin, the third baseman, didn’t offer any help, and the ball dropped on the dirt fungo circle.
It’s not an error. But it’s a play that has to be made.
“Obviously, we have to catch that,” Tracy said.
It somehow got worse from there. Chapman threw a 100.1-m.p.h. fastball off the outside corner of the plate that Valenzuela hit high in the air to left field. Most days, that’s a routine fly ball. On a windy day, it kissed the wall and went for a double.
Ernie Clement scored from first base. Then the Sox made three outs in the bottom of the inning on five pitches for a 4-3 loss.
The only sounds in the clubhouse afterward were muffled conversations and zippers being pulled closed on duffel bags as the players packed up for a West Coast road trip.
Wong, to his credit, didn’t duck questions about the popup.
“Just from the game, you know the wind’s going to hit it,” he said. “Tried to be patient, obviously didn’t want to rush to the backstop … I didn’t put myself in a position to make a play on it.”
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Durbin didn’t get in position, either.
“I saw where it bounced,” he said. “One of those where the wind was affecting the game all day, so you can’t really give up on that off the bat. Off the bat, it goes in the air; you’ve got to attack it. Whether I get there or not, I’m not sure. That’s a really tough ball for Wonger back there.
“I think I maybe could have gone a little harder for it.”
You’d like to think a last-place team trying to avert a series sweep at home against a division rival would make that play.
“We get two big swings, fight back, and have ourselves in position to win the game,” Tracy said. “Let’s get it done … I’m still happy we came back, but we’ve got to finish it.”
Instead, the Sox have lost four straight and eight of 10. Seven of their next 10 games are against division leaders over a span of nine days.
The Sox are 29-43 before what now seems like an inevitable selloff before the trade deadline. This could be a 95-loss team. The Sox haven’t lost that many since the 1965 team was 62-100.
That’s how bad it has become. The players know it, too.
“It’s time to go on a streak, or we’re going to be having new players in this locker room,” Kiner-Falefa said.
Sonny Gray, who allowed three runs over six innings, was even more blunt.
“I can’t speak on behalf of the group, but I can speak on behalf of myself. It’s very frustrating,” he said. “We’re not good. We’re just not a good team right now. That’s just a fact.”
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