McAdam: Alex Cora, Rick Porcello each claim blame as Astros rally to top Sox

The game was lost in the top of the eighth inning. On that, there was no debate.

The Red Sox led the Houston Astros 1-0 when it began, and when it was the half inning was over, they trailed 3-1. That's how it ended, too. Nothing complicated about that.

But after that, there was a lot of gray area. Just who was at fault was tougher to determine, especially as the starting pitcher and his manager each tried to absolve the other of any blame while selflessly claiming responsibility for the defeat.



Rick Porcello had shut out the Astros, the best offense in the game, for seven innings, limiting them to just four hits. At 90 pitches, he hardly had hit the wall, especially after retiring the Houston lineup in order in both the sixth and seventh. In fact, Porcello had retired 17 of the previous 19 dating back to the second inning, with the two baserunners on board because of his only walk of the evening and an infield hit off the glove of Rafael Devers.

But things went poorly in a hurry in the eighth. Porcello's first pitch, a slider he left up, was pulled to left for a leadoff double by Jake Marisnick. His next pitch, and final one of the night, was a changeup, also up, which George Springer hammered into the Red Sox bullpen.

https://twitter.com/astros/status/1129561063824003072

The Astros led for the first time, and for good measure, added another run against Ryan Brasier.

It was the ultimate in tough luck for Porcello, who continued his string of strong starts (2.97 ERA over his last six outings) before coming undone in his final two pitches of the night.

Manager Alex Cora, however, wasn't about to let his starter wear the hair shirt. Cora instead blamed himself

"That was a bad decision,'' said Cora of the call to send Porcello back out for the eighth. "That was a bad one from the get-go. That's the best lineup in baseball. He goes seven, every pitch is high leverage -- he did his job. The whole thing about (letting him get) one hitter and get him out -- what's the point?

"We have the best player in baseball right now (Springer) with a man at second and no outs. That on me. That's not on Rick. I just made a bad decision, put him in a bad spot and we paid the price. I honestly think I should have taken him out after seven. It's not because of what happened; I just put him in a bad spot there. ... He didn't deserve to lose that game.''

But minutes after Cora took responsibility, Porcello offered his own thoughts from a different perspective.

"That's on me in the eighth inning,'' he said. "I threw the two worst pitches of the night to back-to-back hitters and on back-to-back pitches. That was the result. I've got to do a better job. AC trusts me to go out there in the eighth inning and I've got to make better pitches, at least. If they hit those, fine. But those were cookies.''

Without explicitly contradicting his manager's viewpoint, Porcello dismissed the notion that he should have been done after seven.

"No, I was rolling,'' he said. "I was at 90 pitches. I mean, I fully expected to go back out there. I'm out there, it's on me. He's got the confidence to leave me out there and I have to do a better job, I guess, rewarding that confidence. It's 100 percent on me. My pitch count was intact. That was fine. I've got to make better pitches.''

While the battle for accountability might be refreshing and a symbol of respect the players have for Cora and vice versa, the truth might actually lie elsewhere.

Had the bullpen been performing better of late, Cora might have felt more comfortable in pulling Porcello after seven.

But in each of the previous two games, the bullpen squandered late-inning leads. On Tuesday night, it cost the Red Sox in an extra-inning loss to the Colorado Rockies. On Wednesday, the Sox lost the lead in the seventh, but won the game anyway in the 10th.

The bullpen is just 10 for 16 in save opportunities and about half of the current relief crew -- Josh Smith, Ryan Weber, Tyler Thornburg, Hector Velazquez and Colten Brewer -- are ticketed for either long relief or low-leverage spots with the Sox either comfortably ahead or hopelessly behind.

The rest, those trusted for high-leverage spots, have performed unevenly of late except for Marcus Walden, who gave them 2.1 innings just two nights ago.

Had Cora had more lock-down options in his bullpen, he might never have pushed Porcello.

But he didn't. And he did. And it backfired with a stinging loss.