The reality checks for the Red Sox aren't hard to find these days.
For starters, after dropping a 4-2 decision to the White Sox Friday night they are officially in last-place in the American League East, 1/2-game in back of Baltimore and nine behind the first-place Yankees.
It marks the first time the Red Sox have been alone in last-place on May 7 since the Bobby Valentine Experience in 2012, when they sat at 12-16. Three years later the Sox sat tied for last seven days into the season's second month with a 13-15 mark.
Here's another wake-up call: After 27 games, the Red sox are just one game better than their horrific start to the shortened 2020 season. In fact, it was on that day they played the 27th game Chaim Bloom threw up the white flag by trading his closer - Brandon Workman - along with Heath Hembree for Nick Pivetta and Connor Seabold.
What was bad prior to the White Sox coming to town just got worse, with the Red Sox now just one loss to Chicago away from dropping their sixth straight series.
“It’s right there. It’s right in front of everybody, but you have to forget about that," said Sox manager Alex Cora of the standings. "It’s the number of wins and losses, right? But you can’t control what you can’t control. I think you have to detach yourself from the result or whatever’s going on outside in the world and win ballgames. We know we are a better team. We are better than this. But right now we’re not putting games together. It’s not that we played bad, right? Just, we didn’t swing the bats. We played good defense. We made a baserunning mistake. It’s not a full game, you know what I’m saying? When you do that, you start winning consistently, and we’ve got to keep getting better. This is a baseball team that has to keep working to get better, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Friday night was a microcosm of what Cora speak of. It wasn't terrible. It just wasn't good enough.
The Red Sox pitchers gave up four runs - with Luis Roberts' 389-foot two-run homer the most notable blow - but that shouldn't be insurmountable. Unfortunately for the Sox, this season it is.
Red Sox pitching has now given up four or more runs 13 times this season, only one of which resulted in a win for Cora's club. Conversely, the Yankees' hurlers have allowed four or more eight times, with New York going 5-3 in those games.
This time around the Red Sox went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, a spot they have been woefully inadequate in. (As their 25th-best batting average and 26th-ranked OPS in such occasions suggest.)
And two outs and runners in scoring position? Forget it. The Red Sox own the second-worst batting average in such a scenario, hitting .126. (Heck, the three-win Reds are hitting .333.)
It's all not good. One look at the standings on the left field wall will tell you that.
"There’s a lot of people frustrated," Cora said. "That’s normal. This is a group that’s used to hitting and so far we haven’t done it. It’s not for a lack of work. Maybe it’s the other way around. We have to be able to slow it down, slow down the game in certain situations and keep looking for pitches we can handle and put good swings on them. The results, it is what it is. You’re going to hit the ball hard and right at people. That’s part of it. Can’t control that. Just keep doing what we preach. We’ve done it before. As a group, we have to be able to slow down the game."
