Three things we learned in the Red Sox 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays Saturday night at Fenway. It was the second straight loss for the Red Sox.
Errors prove costly
Despite a solid outing from starter Aaron Cook, errors in the field came back to hurt Cook and the Red Sox. Of the five runs Cook allowed, only three of them were earned.
Shortstop Pedro Ciriaco’s error in the second allowed for an extra out in the inning, which led to the Blue Jays’ first run. Third baseman Will Middlebrooks also booted a ball in the seventh allowing Yunel Escobar to reach, who later scored.
According to manager Bobby Valentine, the Blue Jays only hit two balls hard all night. Unfortunately for Cook they both left the park, one by Edwin Encarnacion in the sixth and J.P. Arencibia in the seventh.
“If I had two pitches to take back the whole game those would be the only two,” said Cook. “Other than that I felt like I was in a pretty good rhythm and put the ball where I wanted to. It was just two bad pitches and they made me pay for them tonight.”
Where did the offense go?
After Wednesday night’s ten-run outburst the Red Sox offense has gone cold. With just the three runs Saturday night, the team has now scored three runs or less in their last three games (three Thursday, one Friday, three Saturday).
“We have to put some stuff together, but we have a different mix of guys,” Valentine said. “Maybe they will start getting used to each other.”
Saturday was the first game in which Carl Crawford did not record a hit since his return on Monday, while Jacoby Ellsbury was given a “medically planned” day off.
The top four hitters in the Red Sox lineup have held them back over the past three games. In those games hitters one through four in the lineup are 9-for-47 (.192).
Salty homers, still in funk
With two runners on and no outs in the bottom of the third, catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia stepped to the plate in the midst of a horrific slump.
The catcher was 0-for-14 and 1-for-25, but despite the slump he launched a home run into the Red Sox bullpen, which gave the Red Sox a 3-0 lead at the time.
“With a man on second and less than two outs, you are just trying to get a ball in the air and try and score those guys,” Saltalamacchia said. “He left a slider out that I was able to do some damage with.”
Saltalamacchia finished the game 1-for-4, so he is still struggling at the plate. In his last 34 at bats he has 20 strikeouts and just three hits, two of them being home runs.
