BSJ Game Report: Cubs 10, Red Sox 4 - James Paxton, defense struggle as Sox streak ends

All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' 8-3 loss to the Cubs, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:

BOX SCORE

HEADLINES

Red Sox fall out of the game early: James Paxton tore through six Cubs hitters, striking out the first two he saw before mixing high and low pitches to retire the rest on balls in play. Trey Mancini fell to end the second on a curve ball in the dirt, then Paxton's control disappeared. He walked Christopher Morel and Patrick Wisdom throw pitches high above the zone and hit Miguel Amaya. 

Nico Hoerner grounded a cutter high in the zone with the bases loaded to Kiké Hernández who fumbled it allowing a Cubs run to score and setting up another bases-loaded opportunity for Seiya Suzuki, who should've grounded into a double play if Rafael Devers delivered a clean throw home after stepping on third for a force out. Amaya scored on the toss over Connor Wong's head, Ian Happ walked and Cody Bellinger blasted a grand slam to put Chicago up 6-0 and effectively end the Sox win streak. Wisdom hit a two-run homer on Taylor Scott an inning later. 

Bats go quiet against a stellar Stroman start: Marcus Stroman retired the final nine Red Sox hitters he saw through six stellar innings where he struck out three and allowed three hits, mostly early to Justin Turner, who belted a pair of doubles in the first and fourth innings. Rafael Devers and Alex Verdugo scored Turner with a pair of ground outs to get on the board down 6-1, then the bats silenced. The bottom of the order went down 1-2-3 in the fifth. Jarren Duran and Masataka Yoshida went down to begin the sixth, then Stroman finally set down Turner on a fly out to end his afternoon. Devers doubled and Triston Cases belted a two-run bomb in the seventh, then only three Boston hitters reached base over the final three innings, two via walks.

TWO UP

Justin Turner: Gave the Sox a pair of opportunities to go ahead first with a ground-rule double in the first and a fourth-inning wall ball gave them a chance to get back on track after the disastrous third, scoring on a groundout to make it a 6-1 game. He later grounded out and drove in Hernández in the eighth inning to finish the afternoon 2-4 with an RBI, extending his hit streak to 11 games (18-40, .450).

Triston Casas: Turned into a pitch he blasted 425 feet to center field at 112 miles per hour, the third-hardest homer this season, his 11th of 2023 and first time in his career he went deep in back-to-back games.  

The home run cut Chicago's lead to 8-3 before he kept the game close with a heads-up pickoff of Ian Happ turning around third on a sacrifice fly attempt in the 7th inning. The Cubs piled on two more runs to ice the game after, but Casas took additional steps after hitting 4-12 with a home run and three extra-base hits in three games before Saturday. 

TWO DOWN

James Paxton: Pitched two perfect innings with three strikeouts before putting three straight batters on to begin the third with no outs. He should've escaped the frame with only one run allowed if Devers and Hernández made routine outs, but Paxton didn't help himself throwing a pitch high and inside to Cody Bellinger with the bases loaded. Taking so many pitches to escape after the grand slam wore the Sox bullpen out. Throwing uncompetitive pitches to begin the inning cost him. Bad control game for a pitcher who relies on that. Paxton's ERA increased from 2.73 to 3.51 in one afternoon. 

"That doesn't happen very often, but he's human, like all of us," Alex Cora said. 

Kiké Hernández: Bobbled a bases-loaded grounder with 0 outs in the third inning off Nico Hoerner's bat that should've turned into at least one out. Later threw a double play ball at the bullpen netting after Trey Mancini lined a ground ball up the middle into a force out. That didn't lead to more runs, but should've marked another error for Hernández, who somehow received 0 in another bad fielding game at shortstop. After a Yu Chang home run last night, it's hard to believe Cora returned Kiké to short, where he's committed 14 errors and a .934 fielding percentage. He also hit 0-2. 

“I can say with confidence that we’ve turned that page a month ago,” Cora said before Saturday’s game. “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." 

NOTABLE

Cora told reporters in Chicago to wait until the second game of the Oakland series on Tuesday when Trevor Story would begin his rehab assignment...Yoshida's eight straight games with multiple hits ended with an 0-4 afternoon, that stretch marking the longest by a Sox left-hander since Ted Williams...the Sox hit 1-10 with runners in scoring position, stranding four compared to the Cubs' 5-9 mark in the win... the Sox face a difficult roster decision this week, Hernández could be in trouble with Pablo Reyes nearing the completion of his rehab assignment. Christian Arroyo could be DFA'd to retain Hernández as a center-field option. 

"(Reyes will) DH today (for Portland)," Cora said. "I think he’s playing short tomorrow and then we’ll reassess the situation after that game. For how 'tough' it is quote-unquote, it’s a cool thing. It’s good that we’ve got more good players and we have to make tough decisions.”

UP NEXT

7/16 at CHC 2:20 p.m. RHP Kutter Crawford (3-4, 4.11) LHP Justin Steele (9-2, 2.56)