Three errors from Franchy Cordero. Three runs for the Guardians.
And another loss for the Red Sox.
Your trade deadline primer
The Red Sox fell to Cleveland 7-6 at Fenway Park Wednesday for their 11th loss in 13 games — a staggering free-fall that has dropped them below .500 and into last-place. Boston is now 4.5 games out of a playoff spot with three teams ahead of it in the wild card race. With a ghastly 12-29 record against the AL East, the road to redemption doesn’t look promising.
The biggest Red Sox storylines from now until the trade deadline will be all about whom they’re selling. The worst part is, that seems to be what Chaim Bloom wanted.
The Red Sox never seemingly invested in this season. Cordero’s horrific play at first base is indicative of their apparent indifference.
Bloom’s decision to trade Andrew Benintendi — whom the Yankees acquired Wednesday — was defensible. The first-round pick underperformed as a starting outfielder and struggled through a brutal and injury-riddled 2020 campaign. But the sorry return that Bloom received from Kansas City keeps looking worse.
Cordero, the centerpiece, might not even be a Major League player. Josh Winckowski, meanwhile, is probably a back-of-the-rotation arm at best. He gave up five runs to Cleveland over three innings in his last start.
On Wednesday, Cordero committed a brutal error in the second inning, in which he badly misplayed an infield blooper and then sailed his throw way to the left of the first base bag. Cleveland scored its first run on the play, and later in the frame, Myles Straw doubled home Nolan Jones, who reached on Cordero’s mistake.
Stunningly, the Red Sox battled back, thanks to a rare power surge from Bobby Dalbec. The struggling corner infield, who started at third in place of the injured Rafael Devers, slugged two home runs and knocked in five. Prior to Wednesday, Dalbec was 50 for his last 273 with an OPS under .600.
That’s the primary reason why Red Sox first baseman have the 28th-best OPS in the league. Horrible.
Speaking of which, Cordero helped ensure the Red Sox gave up their lead in the eighth, when he fielded a groundball from Jones but carelessly flipped the ball over pitcher John Schreiber’s head. With one out, Straw doubled home Jones to tie the contest.
Then Josh Naylor took Tanner Houck deep in the ninth. The game was all over.
Cordero has now committed seven errors at first in only 299 innings. He’s not a first baseman; yet, the Red Sox are playing him there, because Bloom left them without options.
The Red Sox didn’t place a competitive offer for Kyle Schwarber last offseason before he signed a four-year, $79 million deal with the Phillies. While Schwarber isn’t a natural first baseman, either, he leads the National League with 31 home runs.
Bloom never replaced his bat.
The calculation probably was that Dalbec and Cordero could replace a percentage of Schwarber for a fraction of the price, which would come out as a net win for the Red Sox.
But it’s been a huge loss, because Dalbec and Cordero can’t play. We saw that again Wednesday.
The Red Sox, a big market team, have played the entire season without a representative first baseman. Thanks, Chaim.