On Saturday, Boston’s ‘Little Engine That Possibly Could’ came to a screeching halt.
After cruising to victory with a barrage of home runs in Friday night’s series opener against the Chicago Cubs, the Red Sox found themselves on the receiving end of a similar offensive onslaught; a series of questionable defensive decisions and miscues coupled with an uncharacteristic collapse by James Paxton culminated in a 10-4 loss to the 43-48 NL Central team.
Kiké Hernández entered the day leading the Majors with 15 errors, including 14 at shortstop (12 throwing errors), and yet, he was back at the position on Saturday with a significant vote of confidence from his manager.
“I can say with confidence that we’ve turned that page a month ago,” Alex Cora told reporters pregame. “He’s been playing really good shortstop for us for a month now. We move him around but I’m very confident with him playing short. He found a few things he was doing mechanically-wise, and I think it’s paying off. So I don’t have any issue with him playing shortstop today.”
Less than two weeks ago, the Red Sox skipper was singing a different tune. Asked about Hernández’s role before their July 6 game, he confirmed that the utility player’s primary role would be second base, and added, “probably against lefties, he’ll play somewhere.”
On Saturday, Hernández started at shortstop against Cubs right-hander Marcus Stroman. A third-inning defensive blunder wasn’t ruled an error, but proved costly nonetheless, and he went 0-for-2 with a walk. He’s down to a .219 batting average and career-worst .600 OPS on the season.
It’s difficult to justify starting Hernández anywhere at this point, shortstop especially. The Red Sox entered the day with the best record in the American League since June 14 and the best mark in the majors since the 30th in spite of their middle infield, but if they plan to be buyers at the upcoming trade deadline and make a Wild Card push, they’ll need to make some difficult decisions in the near future.
Meanwhile, Paxton began his first career start against the storied Chicago franchise with two perfect innings, making it all the more baffling when he immediately came undone at the beginning of the third. He issued a leadoff walk to Christopher Morel, then hit Miguel Amaya, and walked Patrick Wisdom to load the bases with no outs.
The Cubs took a 1-0 lead when Hernández snagged, then bobbled a Nico Hoerner ground-ball; instead of getting even one out, every runner was safe. The miscue was generously ruled a single.
Rafael Devers wasn’t so lucky during the following at-bat. He got Wisdom at third on Seiya Suzuki’s force-out, but made a throwing error as Amaya scored, extending the lead to 2-0.
Things unraveled at warp speed after that. Hoerner and Suzuki completed a successful double steal and Paxton walked Happ to re-load the bases, just in time to give up a grand slam to Cody Bellinger. The Cubs had a 6-0 lead, all before making a second out.
Paxton gave up a single before getting a force out and strike out before getting out of the inning. All told, 10 Cubs came to bat in the frame. After getting through each of the previous two innings on 11 pitches, Paxton needed 41 for his third and final frame.
“That doesn’t happen very often, but he’s human, like all of us,” Cora told reporters postgame.
“They did damage,” Paxton said.
This particular brand of struggle was a serious departure from the norm for the usually-stingy southpaw. He’d only issued as many as three walks in one of his previous 10 starts. His 6.4 percent walk rate and 2.3 BB/9 ranked second-best of his career.
Manager and pitcher agreed that his outing was reminiscent of his start in Anaheim at the end of May. Until Saturday, it had been his worst start of the year; the Angels tagged him for five earned runs on four hits and three walks. Not only were the Cubs the first team to match or exceed those run and walk totals, they were the only other team to score more than three runs off the veteran lefty.
Paxton has anchored the starting rotation since his season debut in early May. As injuries befell Chris Sale, Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock, and Corey Kluber, who pitched his way to a demotion to the bullpen before joining his fellow arms on the sidelines, Paxton was the eye in the storm.
While Paxton’s day was far from perfect, his response to the outing was.
“It’s not my first bad game, it won’t be my last,” he said. “You’re going to have these throughout a season, and it’s all about what you do to get back to doing what you want to do out there.
“We all fail, at times. And it’s more about how you deal with failure than the failure itself.”
How will the Red Sox deal with Saturday’s failure? Tune into the series finale on Sunday to find out.