If there’s one thing missing from the Red Sox right now, it’s accountability.
JD Martinez complained so much about the lack of video in the game that manager Ron Roenicke basically gave him a cease-and-desist. Rafael Devers showed up at camp in subpar form and is already injured. Andrew Benintendi is such a mess, his two hits on Tuesday raised his average above .100 for the first time since July.
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The Red Sox looked listless in an 8-2 loss to the Rays who tumbled their way to last place. The bullpen imploded to another solid start from Martin Perez, resulting in six runs in the seventh and four runs. The offender stranded six men, grounded in two double plays, and had a runner know at the base.
“It’s a crazy game,” Perez said. “Just turn the page and come back tomorrow.”
The problem, of course, is that Red Sox runs out very early in the morning. The Sunday-Sunday win over the Blue Jays gave them their first momentum of this shortened season, with three wins in four games, and then they fought to the last in an 8-7 loss to the Rays on Monday.
Tuesday’s defeat was a particularly kind of terrible one, though, they dropped to 6-11, good for dead last in the American League, five games behind the Yankees and 3.5 behind the Rays.
However, one player seems to understand what’s going on, and the Red Sox need to follow his lead. Striker Michael Chavis, in the middle of a hot streak after a terrible start, was one of the few standouts in the defeat. He went 2 for 4 with a triple and an RBI when he played second base, but all he wanted to talk about when it was over was a play he did not make.
The Rays had already scored twice when Yandy Diaz hit one in the middle ground with rounds on the corners. Chavis’s momentum carried him well past the bag as he turned and made the simply advised decision to try to nod Mike Zunino to the plate with a jump instead of first taking out the safe.
His throw sailed the line up and had no chance at all. As soon as Chavis released it, he grabbed his head in his hands. The Rays scored three more runs to open up an unmanageable 8-1 lead.
On his Zoom call to the media, Chavis fell on his sword to an absurd degree.
“I thought about the play before it happened,” he said. “I decided when it was hit to my right or left, and it was hit pretty hard on the barrel, I did not know (Zunino’s) the fastest man.
“I knew if I could get there fast enough and make a good throw, I could have him. The ball bounced a little higher than I had planned or thought it would. When I had to jump for it, it just took my momentum. and then I had to do a bounce box, that’s where it was messaged. I should have decided to go to the first base at that point. That’s up to me. The game is pretty lost for us, honestly. That’s pretty much it. difficult. “
Wait a minute, lost the game? An 8-1 game? Even if Chavis makes that play, the Rays lead 5-1. The Red Sox did not return from a single deficit.
“It just blew the wind out of us,” Chavis insists. “I felt like it was a kind of kick in the nostrils, honest, simple and straightforward. I felt like we were fighting, we had good at-bats. I felt like the atmosphere in the dugout, in the clubhouse and everything was really good.After this, I just, it pulls.You could see, I felt like the air was kind of taken out of us.Something like that, they put six in that inning.Or I make this game, I get the at first, if that becomes undeserved runes like deserved runes, that’s on me.
“At the end of the day, I should at least get an out,” Chavis added. “I fixed that.”
What comes up in Chavis’ admission is how unexpected it was, because we haven’t heard much from her about the Red Sox this year. Instead, we heard about no video, and late arrival times, and horrible pitching that forced the crime too much. Those complaints fit in with the general malaise that the club is swallowing as well as the major molasses flood.
When Chavis took possession of a mental foul – a day after appearing really upset for teammate Jonathan Arauz recording his first hit – it was shocking. Responsibility should not be a pleasant surprise, and yet we are here.
