Red Sox Notes: Tanner Houck pounded on Monday; Pete Fatse getting some blame, Triston Casas dropped in the lineup, injury updates

The Red Sox were embarrassed on Monday night when the Rays obliterated them 16-1 at George Steinbrenner Field.

Tanner Houck recorded just seven outs on Monday; he allowed 12 runs, 11 earned, on 10 hits (two homers) while walking one and striking out one. Houck’s ERA has ballooned to a staggering 9.16 in the process; he’s allowed 19 earned runs in 18 2/3 innings through four starts. That comes on the heels of an even rougher spring, where he recorded an 11.20 ERA (17 earned runs) in 13 2/3 innings.

“Just not good,” Houck said. “Come back tomorrow, figure it out.”

Houck has one good outing this season, which came in his last outing against the Blue Jays at Fenway Park. The righty is still having an issue missing bats; he only induced four swings-and-misses in that start.

The Rays have had Houck’s number when he’s faced them since the spring. Houck gave up 10 runs on 12 hits, including one home run, in 3 2/3 innings during his final Grapefruit League start.

There is a possibility that Houck is tipping with his pitches, and the Rays have detected this. Houck didn’t sound too confident following his start, and that was the case. His skipper, Alex Cora, doesn’t think that’s Houck’s issue.

“I don’t believe so,” Cora said to reporters after the game on Monday. “If you look at the balls they hit hard, they were in the middle of the plate. There were, of course, some balls that went by; we didn’t play good defense behind him. Good approach, and they put some good swings on him.”

Houck saw the first pitch of the game crushed 415 feet to left-center field off the bat of Yandy Diaz. The Rays began their offensive onslaught over the first two innings, scoring five runs. Then, in the third inning, Houck lost control. Tampa sent 14 batters to the plate, ten reached safely, and nine scored.

Houck hasn’t been the pitcher he was prior to the All-Star break; he’s just 1-5 with a 5.38 ERA in 15 starts.

“Not a good day all around,” Houck said. “Come back tomorrow and work through it.”

NO OFFENSE AND ATROCIOUS DEFENSE

When the Red Sox signed Alex Bregman in February, it was with the intention that he would be an immediate upgrade at third base. In the long run, he likely will be an immediate upgrade at third base; currently, he leads the team with four errors. His latest error came in the loss on Monday when he booted a ball that should have been a potential double play.

“Not playing our brand of baseball. It’s been real sloppy on both sides,” shortstop Trevor Story said. “It’s hard to win when you’re not playing well on defense and we’re not stringing at-bats together.”

Cora took the blame for the Sox loss on Monday, where the lifeless offense struggled to generate anything against Rays righty Shane Baz, managing just six hits, and their lone run was a homer that came off the bat of Kristian Campbell.

“It seems like there was a team that was prepared for the other one, and the other one wasn’t prepared for them,” Cora said. “That goes from top all the way to the bottom. That wasn’t a good night for us. I’ll take the blame because it seemed like our team wasn’t ready to go.”

Boston leads the majors with 20 errors, and it’s not just one or two players; they have 12 different players who have committed at least one error this season.

“The defense has been bad. The offense has been bad, and we’ve been inconsistent pitching-wise,” Cora said. “So those are the three pillars of baseball, and we haven’t been good.”

On Monday, Bregman may have committed an error, but others on the Sox played poorly in the field, including Jarren Duran, who allowed a runner to score all the way from first base on Brandon Lowe’s single to left field in the second inning. He threw to second base as both Taylor Walls and Jake Mangum scored.

“Today we didn’t turn a double play,” Cora said. “Alex booted a ball. Jarren, he threw to second, and we redirected the ball to the plate. That was a good play by them. But I don’t think it’s decision-making. I think we’re just not catching the ball.”

The defensive miscues seemingly feel like mental mistakes, but they’ve been costly.

“We’re not playing good baseball,” Cora said. “That doesn’t mean that we’re not ready to win. ... We have to play better. We know that. And I said it from day one, like for us to be where we want to be, we have to be consistent on the things that we do. And honestly we’ve been consistently bad the last 10 days.”

Cora took the blame, but the players aren’t executing, and Story echoed that sentiment following the game.

“No. I mean, we’re the ones out there playing the game. There’s a certain pride when you wear this jersey. ... We have to look ourselves in the mirror, and we’ve gotta be honest with ourselves. But there’s a lot of baseball to be played. We know the type of team that we have. We can turn it around. I’m very confident in that.”

RED SOX LOOKING TO REBOUND

The Red Sox must quickly forget about Monday night's game. Walker Buehler will start, and he’s coming off his best outing of the season against the Blue Jays. Buehler looked incredibly sharp on the mound, throwing first-pitch strikes to 18 of 24 batters he faced, walking just one batter, and striking out seven. The Sox’ righty got stronger throughout his outing, retiring 14 of the final 16 batters he faced. He had eight swings and misses, the most he’s had in his three starts.

“This is as good as I’ve felt,” Buehler said. “We put in a ton of work this week with everyone in the building about what we’re seeing and what we’re feeling, and it paid off.”

On Tuesday night, Triston Casas will bat seventh after moving down in the lineup. The left-handed slugger has made 12 starts in the cleanup spot before he was slowly lowered in the lineup.

Casas is 9-for-40 (.225) in the month of April with three doubles, a homer, and three RBI, while walking three times. He’s faced Rays righty Ryan Pepiot four times in his career and is 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.

It’s easy to panic over Casas’ slow start; he will enter the game on Tuesday with a .175/.242/.281 slash line, 18 strikeouts, four walks, and only one home run through 16 games. His lack of offensive production is unacceptable given the Sox’ reliance on the young slugger’s bat in the lineup.

What could be the cause for Casas’ struggles to begin the season?

“In between. He hasn't played that much either, and he's still learning his swing, his craft,” said Cora pregame. “And one thing from Day One that I noticed, when he got called up, there was a lot of conviction behind his plan. Right now, he's not there. You can see him taking fastballs in the middle of zone. You can see his takes. They're a little bit hesitant, 3-2 takes, pitches in the zone that he will usually at least foul it off, he's not doing that. He's not walking either. And that's a part of his game."

The sample size is small, but if Casas can’t get it going, the Red Sox will need to react. Romy Gonzalez could be in line for more playing time, and with Vaughn Grissom getting reps at first base for the WooSox, Boston could put a bandaid on their first base issues in the short term while Casas tries to get himself going offensively.

PETE FATSE GETTING SOME BLAME?

Fans immediately point the finger at the coaches when players perform poorly. Red Sox hitting coach Pete Fatse has been under scrutiny from fans on social media, particularly due to the offense seemingly going cold the last handful of games. Cora wants Fatse to stick to the process, and eventually they'll consistently start to hit.

"You have conversations," Cora said to reporters Tuesday. "It’s part of the process. As long as the process is where it’s supposed to be, the results will happen. And we know that. We talk about it the other day — the line was moving, runners in scoring position. At one point we’re gonna get a hit with men in scoring position. We’re gonna start hitting the ball out of the ballpark."

Offensively, the Sox have scored just 78 runs in 18 games; keep in mind, 31 of those runs came at the expense of the Cardinals during the opening homestand. Outside of that offensive explosion, the Red Sox have scored 47 runs in their other games, which is an average of 2.9 runs per game.

"That’s been the message — conviction behind the plan," Cora said. “And if we do that, we are gonna be good. With Pete, he understands how it works. And my job, our job, is to cancel the noise, and I think I took care of that yesterday."

Cora also credited Baz for his dominant outing on the mound. 

“One thing for sure: He’s really good,” Cora said. “That pitcher yesterday was really good. And we were down 9-0. And it was a bad game for us. That’s not an excuse for non-competitive at-bats, but he does that to a lot of teams. We have to realize that. They do that to a lot of teams.”

“The script, we have to stop it,” Cora added. “To come down here and strike out 14 times, 15 times, it’s a lot easier for them to play the game, right? And then from there, they just have to make a handful of plays and they’re in a good spot. So I’m not saying spread out, choke up, put the ball in play because that doesn’t work either. But we have to fight at-bats. And we have to execute the plan with conviction. I think there’s a few guys, not everybody, that they’re in between right now — what they want to hit, when they want to hit it."

RED SOX INJURY UPDATES

Connor Wong participated in baseball activities on Tuesday, just eight days after suffering a pinky fracture.

“Progressing, feeling better. Actually, he was able to do some catching drills today, so that’s a positive,” Cora said to reporters before the game on Tuesday.

The Sox’ catching depth is thin organizationally right now, with just Carlos Narváez and Blake Sabol on the big league roster. Seby Zavala was placed on the WooSox 7-day IL with a left oblique strain. Yasmani Grandal, a newly signed veteran catcher, will catch for Worcester on the road in Rochester.

Masataka Yoshida, who began the season on the IL rehabbing from right shoulder labral repair during the offseason, is working in Fort Myers.

Cora said that Yoshida is not close to a rehab assignment. He has also dealt with a back issue that popped up at the end of spring training.

Lucas Giolito (left hamstring) is with the Portland Sea Dogs and is making another rehab start on Tuesday night in Hartford. Brayan Bello (right shoulder) and Liam Hendriks (right elbow) are expected to pitch for the Sea Dogs at some point this week. Kutter Crawford (right knee) threw a bullpen on Saturday.

“I don’t know where we’re at as far as, like, what’s the next step,” Cora said. “But obviously nothing close to being back with us.”

Worcester also added right-handed pitcher Hobbie Harris to the 7-day IL with right shoulder inflammation. Boston acquired Harris during the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft this past December.