They want to complain about the schedule. They want to say how close they are to winning some baseball games. They just want to go home.
They are also smart enough to mention very little of it. Before Saturday night's game, Alex Cora offered reminders that the Red Sox don't stay in motels or sit in middle seats on flights. After the game, David Price bit his tongue when it came to the 11-game road trip to start the season.
That execution of those sort of things has been pretty good.
"Right now I'm looking forward to tomorrow," Mookie Betts told reporters following the Red Sox' 5-4 loss to the Diamondbacks.. "Take care of tomorrow. Get a win so we can have a happy flight. I think that's primary right now."
"There is no frustration, man," Cora told reporters after his team fell to 2-8. "We just keep grinding. We show up tomorrow. Hopefully, we have a happy flight, go home. See the family on Monday, hang out with your kids, all that. Put everything in perspective and move forward."
"I'm not going to complain about the schedule," starting pitcher David Price added. "We're the Red Sox. Get-away-days are usually night games. We get in at four or five in the morning. I've seen the Yankees do it all the time. ... This wasn't good."
The only part that truly matters -- on the field -- however, hasn't been on point. That was evident once again in the latest defeat. (For a complete recap of the Sox' latest defeat, click here.)
Sure, they played better this time around. For the first time all season the Red Sox starting pitcher didn't give up a home run. That starter, David Price, turned in a fairly solid outing, allowing four runs in six innings Cora's club didn't lose this one until the ninth inning when Colten Brewer allowed a game-winning RBI single to Carson Kelly with two outs in the final frame. But there will be no participation trophies.
The fact of that matter is that there are still enough mistakes being made that are leading to this mess.
Betts pulled up just enough to allow Nick Ahmed's shallow fly ball to drop in for the hosts first two runs in the second inning, a ball he would usually be expected to catch. Once again, communication with Jackie Bradley Jr. seemed to be an issue.
"Here the gaps are so big we have to play a couple of steps deeper, but I take responsibility for that," Betts said. "I have to come up with that somehow."
Christian Vazquez allowed a key passed ball with Brewer on the mound that allowed Eduardo Escobar to take second with one out. That mattered because the Red Sox were forced to try and gun Escobar down at the plate on Ahmed's single -- which Betts did -- allowing the hitter to reach second and ultimately score on Kelly's two-out base hit.
Then there was the pitch selection on the final at-bat. After befuddling Arizona hitters with a vicious curveball, Brewer offered up a third straight fastball to Kelly which the catcher jumped all over to rifle the decisive blow into left field.
"I was basically trying to get a ground ball and get out of the inning. Maybe weak contact, maybe a swing and miss," Brewer told reporters. "He ended up shooting it to left field."
As we sit here the effort and optimism don't really matter.
They are the only team in the major leagues with as many as eight losses. There hasn't been one game which has seen the Red Sox enter the ninth inning with a lead. This group has been outscored 72-45. Tampa Bay, conversely, has a run differential of plus-12 thanks to allowing just 19 runs. (That's 26 fewer runs!) The team ERA is 6.97. The starters' ERA is 9.13. They have hit 10 home runs. Their opponents have managed 23.
Remember, this is a results business, and heading into the final game of this road trip business is not good for these Red Sox.
"It’s frustrating. Everybody in here is frustrated," Price told reporters. "We’ve been through a lot together this group of guys together for the last two or three years. So we’ll be OK. I think everybody in here understands that. And we just have to take it one game at a time, just like we did last year when we won 108 games, 119 on the season and were World Series champions. We just need to get back home and all our fans remind us how good we are."
Now they have one more day to change a narrative heading into ring ceremony, even if it's just a little bit.
"I don’t think anybody has ever gotten their World Series rings and gotten booed," the starter added. "So I think we’ll get cheered."
He's right. Errors, ERA and such won't change their reception. After that. That's when, one way or another, reality will set in.