Through all the over-analyzing, hand-wringing and blame-throwing, Brayan Bello might have finally delivered the purest dose of reality for these Red Sox.
“I feel like we need to make an adjustment,” Bello said after his team’s 17th one-run loss of the season, this one a 4-3 decision in 10 innings. The adjustment?
“Win.”
That alteration needs to start coming soon. That is clear. Look at the standings and you’ll find the Red Sox 10 games in back of the Yankees and five games out of the final Wild Card spot with five teams in front of them. Look at the record, which now has this club at five games under .500 for the first time since the end of 2023. And, most notably, listen to their manager.
“We keep making the same mistakes. We’re not getting better,” said a clearly frustrated Alex Cora.
“At one point it has to be on me, I guess, right? I’m the manager. I got to keep pushing them to get better. They’re not getting better. They’re not. We keep making the same mistakes, same mistakes. I’m being very honest about it, very open about it. You get frustrated but at one point. It’s like, OK, what are we going to do? What’s going to change? Because we keep doing the same thing, same thing. We can keep talking about one-run losses. We have what, 17, 18? It’s the same thing. Is it effort? Preparation? Attention to detail? I have no idea, man. I watched that game and was like, ‘Wow, this is real!’ It’s frustrating.”
For reasons upon reasons, the frustration is higher than Cora and Co. has experienced in some time.
The manager knows that the avenue to uncover excuses is a road not worth venturing down. Every team has key injuries. But not every team continues to look as consistently off as this edition of the Red Sox have.
“What you saw today. Routine ground balls for double plays we don’t turn, we throw to the wrong bases, we miss cut-off guys, PFPs were horrible. So there’s a lot of bad right now,” Cora added.
It has now been 13 losses in their last 15 one-run games.
It has been a 15-23 record since April 23, a stretch that hasn’t seen any win streak more than two in a row.
It has been a group that currently doesn’t look up to the task of fulfilling expectations.
Cora’s postgame message will tell everyone that simply waiting for the script to be flipped will likely lead to the same results. But what can actually be done? The injection of Roman Anthony would be a worthy exploration. Trades? Executives will tell you making trades these days - both because of the month and tight-fisted approach by front offices - seems tougher than ever.
For now, there is only one easy answer (besides Bello’s suggestion they might want to win).
“Show up (Wednesday),” Cora said. “Show up (Wednesday). That’s all we can do.”
To this point, that strategy hasn’t worked.