Alex Cora had hoped to be singing a different tune following Tuesday’s series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays.
As miserable as the last couple of weeks had been for Boston, Tuesday represented a fresh start for a Red Sox team looking to trudge ahead — rather than sit and stew over a 2-9 skid that plummeted them from their previous perch atop the summit of the AL East.
A return to the friendly confines of Fenway Park — where Boston swept Tampa Bay earlier this season — was a sight for sore eyes after Boston routinely found itself on the ropes at Tropicana Field, Comerica Park and Rogers Centre.
For Cora, the task was simple. Get back in the win column. Right the ship. Get back in the race.
“For everything that has been going on with us the last 20 days or 10 days, however you want to see it, we’re still in a good position to win the division, to fight for the division or make it to the playoffs,” Cora said in his pregame presser. “Our goal is to win the division.”
Cora’s optimism was considerably tougher to unearth just a few hours later when he fielded questions from the same virtual Zoom conference room.
There were no queries centered on the Sox turning the page. No righting of any vessel.
Instead, the Sox manager could only shake his head when asked if his club’s current predicament could get any worse than it already is.
“I hope not,” Cora flatly declared.
Any Sox fan subjected to the misfortune that has spilled out on the diamond over the last couple of weeks is already familiar with the type of loss that played out on Tuesday night — an 8-4 crusher to the Rays.
You know the one — in which a lack of execution with men on base and a bullpen that has posted an unsightly 6.40 ERA in August sank Boston’s chances of a much-needed series-opening victory against the top dogs in the AL East.
But Tuesday’s loss sure felt like a perfect storm: An ugly result in which everything that has ailed Boston since the trade deadline came together like a thundering symphony of crushing crescendos — plummeting this team further down into the depths of the division.
The hallmarks of a trademark Sox defeat were all present and accounted for on a night in which a 4-1 lead for Boston was diced up via a seven-run Tampa Bay salvo over the final four innings of play.
Once again, the Red Sox failed to deliver the haymaker at the plate to give themselves some much-needed breathing room — with Boston going just 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranding seven men on base.
In the fifth, after Xander Bogaerts failed to bring Franchy Cordero home from third with a fly out to shallow left and J.D. Martinez couldn’t capitalize with the bases juiced, disaster seemed to be brewing on the horizon.
“I felt today — the first part of the game, we did an amazing job,” Cora said. “Eduardo (Rodriguez) was great. We were one hit away from putting them away, but we didn't do it. And that's been happening a lot. We haven't been able to add to the lead and kind of breeze throughout the game. “
Sure enough, once Tampa Bay put another run across the board and chased Rodriguez after just 82 pitches in the sixth — Boston’s hopes of gliding to a much-needed win ground to a halt.
And in a cruel twist of fate, it was one of Boston’s few stalwarts in its bullpen (both during this recent slump and all season long) that helped orchestrate Tampa’s late-game rally.
Garrett Whitlock — he of a 14-inning scoreless streak entering Tuesday and a 0.54 ERA over his 21 outings — finally came back to earth at the worst possible time, relinquishing a two-run double to Ji-Man Choi in the seventh to knot things up at 4-4.
In the ninth, the Red Sox placed their hopes in a reliever in Matt Barnes that has been searching in vain for any sort of reprieve over the last couple of weeks. After allowing a total of two home runs over his previous 25 appearances, Barnes had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad time up in Toronto — surrendering two big flies over his last three games.
Barnes managed to keep all of his pitches in the ballpark on Tuesday, but par for the course during this slide, everything that could have gone wrong did for the beleaguered closer on the mound against a Rays team that smelled blood in the water.
A half-hearted swing from Randy Arozarena managed to make contact with a Barnes heater and blooped into no-man’s land in right — bouncing into the stands for a ground-rule double.
Not a great start.
Barnes struck out Nelson Cruz, but then walked Wander Franco. Then another strikeout.
Two outs.
Then four straight balls to Austin Meadows.
Ruh-roh.
Three pitches later, the Rays secured their first lead of the night. Francisco Mejia took a breaking pitch from Barnes and laced it into right field — with a misplay from Hunter Renfroe compounding Boston’s woes.
By the time his relay made it back into the infield, all three Rays baserunners had crossed home.
"It's been a grind for him lately,” Cora said of Barnes. “Tonight was a grind for us."
Brandon Lowe provided the coup de grace later in the frame, knocking in Mejia with an RBI single off Martin Perez — recently relegated to the bullpen after posting a 14.21 ERA over his last three outings.
Put it all together, and both Cora and Red Sox are right where they started on Tuesday morning — still focused on trudging through an awful stretch with seemingly no end in sight.
Whether that same optimism remains in place moving forward remains to be seen.
"We had chances to put them away. We didn't do it,” Cora said, adding: “Everybody's talking about Saturday when Chris (Sale) gets on the mound, but we got games before that.”