Tito Not Dwelling On Past, Need To 'Pay Attention To What's At Hand'
BOSTON (CBS) – After falling 8-5 to the Rays on Sunday, the Boston Red Sox saw their Wild Card lead dip to just two games.
They have dropped 11 of 14 games in September, and are limping towards the postseason. If they make it that far.
But instead of dwelling on the past, Manager Terry Francona is looking ahead.
"What's more important to me right now is we've already done that. Now we have to figure out a way to turn it around," said Francona on Sunday. "I guess I choose to believe that, knowing the guys down in that clubhouse like I do. We'll meet this challenge and it will make us stronger. That's out best way to go about this."
The Red Sox entered September with a 1 ½ game lead over the New York Yankees in the AL East, and as a backup, a nine game lead over the Rays in the Wild Card.
Now even the backup plan has come into question.
"We've managed to play some very inconsistent baseball," said Francona after Sunday's loss. "You never lose one way, it's not just pitching it's not just hitting; we've been inconsistent in a lot of areas. Now we'll see if we can dig ourselves out of it. Not just dig ourselves out of it, but just go play the way we can."
"If you pitch well and get the big hits, you're going to win. We haven't done either of those things," said second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who is hitting just .215 in September.
Now the Red Sox have 10 games remaining to right their wrong, and possibly gain some confidence heading into the postseason. It is time to forget about their awful start to September, and finish strong.
That, or the season will be over before they know it.
"We're happy as (expletive deleted), we have a two game lead with 10 to go," said Pedroia. "We're ready to go… We just haven't played very good. We're not going to feel sorry for ourselves for playing like crap. Nobody is going to give us anything."
"We can't win for two weeks ago. We have to get past that and pay attention to what's at hand, pay attention to detail, that's the best we can do," said Francona. "We don't need to be beating these guys over the head with what they've done 10 days ago. We need to learn from it; and not do it again and do better."
"We need to do it in about 12 hours; we have a nice long day of baseball (Monday), which I'm glad," Francona said of Boston's day-night double header with the Orioles at Fenway.
The Red Sox lead in the Wild Card is their slimmest sine June 30, when they led the Rays by 1 1/2. While Boston stays home to play four against the Orioles, the Rays head to New York for a four-game set with the Yankees starting on Tuesday.
New York owns a 4 1/2 game lead over the Sox in the AL East.
Are Boston fans ready to root for the Yankees?
