Inside Baseball: Where Are All The Leaders On The Red Sox?
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Red Sox lost again on Monday night, 4-2 to the Atlanta Braves at Fenway, making it seven-straight losses for Boston's baseball team.
Following a sweep of the Oakland Athletics just one week ago, there was some hope the team was getting out of their season-long malaise. But with this current losing streak, the team sits nine games back in the AL East and just half a game ahead of the A's in the basement of the American League. At 27-38, Boston owns the fourth-worst record in all of baseball.
"They're right back down the drain," Tony Massarotti said on Monday night's Inside Baseball on the WBZ-TV News at 10 on myTV38. "They've had every opportunity to right this thing, and it keeps going the other way."
While many fans are calling for manager John Farrell to lose his job, Dan Roche says this is on the players.
"I think Farrell has done as much has he can," said Rochie, noting an overall lack of leadership in the Red Sox clubhouse. "I'll give you the difficult loss they had on [Sunday] where they got beat up by the Jays again, they left [Xander] Bogaerts, [Blake] Swihart and Steven Wright to speak to the media. Where are your leaders when you need them then? That's a bad precedent to set right there, leaving your kids out there to fend off the carnivorous Boston press."
"That's inexcusable," said Mazz. "There is no way you should put young guys out there, especially when they're playing better than most of the veterans."
The team has held plenty of meetings this season, including another one on Monday, but it doesn't seem as though whatever message they're trying to get across is reaching everyone.
Another glowing example of the overall lack of leadership was last week's dugout argument between Wade Miley and Farrell. Miley was not happy about being lifted after giving up five runs in four innings in Baltimore (including three longballs), and let Farrell know it in front of the whole team and 22,000 fans at Camden Yards.
Rochie said in the past, a veteran player would have pulled Miley aside in the clubhouse and talked some sense into him. If that were the case, we would have heard an apology from Miley that evening, rather than the next day.
"The one thing you wonder, is there a clubhouse element that is missing there?" asked Mazz. "You want a veteran player to step up, and someone in the clubhouse who is an extension of the manager. But it can't be contrived, it has to be someone the players believe in and the manager believes in.
"I don't know what happened down the runway, but [the Miley exchange] gives the appearance Farrell is losing the team," said Mazz.
"Which is why someone should be in there saying, 'Miley, you need to end this now.' That happened, just a day late," added Rochie.
Rochie said it was Farrell's natural instinct to defend his player, but Mazz said it looks as though he's losing his hold on the team -- whether that is true or not.
Rochie and Mazz also discuss David Ortiz's struggles at the plate to close out this week's Inside Baseball. Tune in Inside Baseball every Monday night on the WBZ-TV News at 10 on myTV38!
