Ejected Alex Cora frustrated with Red Sox' sloppy defense

BOSTON -- Alex Cora was ejected from Tuesday night's Red Sox loss in Houston for arguing balls and strikes. But the home plate umpire's calls may not have topped his list of frustrations from the 7-3 affair.

With Red Sox defenders making three more errors, the team season total stretched to 90 on the year, most in the majors. That included one from Rafael Devers, putting in a tie with former teammate Enrique Hernandez and Detroit's Javy Baez for most in MLB with 16. Two errors in the seventh in particular proved to be disastrous, allowing Houston to turn a 3-0 lead into a 7-0 lead in a flash.

After the loss -- which dropped Boston to five games out of the final wild card spot -- Cora lamented what was one of the "sloppiest games in the last few weeks." 

"We've done everything, from a lot of ground balls to no ground balls, the first-step program to individual workouts and all that. It hasn't worked out," Cora said postgame, according to MLB.com. "It's not lack of trying because the players have been busting [it trying] to get better."  

An advanced statistic called Outs Above Average (OAA) became quite popular among Red Sox Twitter on Tuesday, as the Red Sox rank dead last at negative-54 on the scale. The Reds rank second-to-last at negative-23. The Padres are the league leaders at plus-29.

While that's ... less than ideal, Cora said he's not even worried about his team making the exceptional plays.

"I know a lot of people today saw that stat about Outs Above Average. I really don't care about that one. Just give me routine plays," he said. "You make routine plays, and you're fine. … For stretches here, we haven't made the routine plays."

By every measurable calculation, that's been proven true. And with 126 games in the books, it's not really getting any better.