Alex Cora has no explanation for Red Sox being so bad in interleague play
BOSTON -- On Tuesday night, after dropping the series opener at home against Miami, Alex Cora was asked if there's anything in particular about National League ballclubs that has given the Red Sox trouble this year.
"Just a coincidence, I guess," the Boston manager said.
One night later, after the Red Sox lost again to the Marlins -- this time by a more respectable 6-2 score, compared to 10-1 the night before -- Cora was once again asked about the difficulties Boston has had against NL foes. With Wednesday's loss in the books, the Red Sox are now 11-17 against NL opponents. Compared to their 29-24 record against American League teams and 13-11 record against divisional opponents, it's easy to point to that interleague record as the primary culprit for their perfectly mediocre 40-41 record at the season's halfway point.
This time around, Cora gave a more expansive answer, though he still couldn't really pinpoint a specific issue.
"To be honest with you, I can't explain it," Cora said. "It's not that we're worse than them. We're just getting beat. If you go back, the Cardinals swept us, but we were leading in two games. The Rockies, two extra-inning games. Obviously, these guys played better than us the last two days. And I wish I knew."
Cora did point out some of the successes Boston has had when facing NL teams, but ultimately, the record is what the record is.
"We still have plenty of games against the National League. You know, we went to Arizona, one of the best teams in the big leagues, and we beat them two out of three. We went to San Diego and did the same thing," Cora said. "Just here, we got swept by the Cardinals and the Pirates. It's just one of those [things] that I wish I knew."
The latest loss, as stated, dropped the Red Sox below .500. It's the first time they're below .500 ... since they lost the first two games of their series at Fenway against the Rockies.
The Red Sox will try to salvage one win in this series against the NL wild card-leading Marlins with an early 6:10 p.m. start on Thursday, and they'll get a reprieve from NL opponents before heading to Chicago to face the Cubs at Wrigley Field from July 14-16. After that, the Mets and Braves visit Fenway from July 21-26, before the Red Sox head out to San Francisco for a three-game set with the Giants.
That Giants series concludes on July 30, two days before the trade deadline -- so, two days before Chaim Bloom and the front office have to decide whether to buy, sell, or stand pat with this year's team. If the Red Sox continue to win those interleague games at a sub-.400 clip, the decision will largely be made on its own.