Life in the AL East is rather unforgiving, and the Boston Red Sox were on the receiving end of a 16-1 beatdown from the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday. The Rays tagged the Red Sox for nine runs in the third inning alone, and by the time that fateful half-inning ended, the Red Sox found themselves down 14-1 — which should trigger the mercy rule on MLB The Show next inning.
Over the course of a 162-game season, losses like this shouldn't get a team too down. After all, this still counts as just one defeat on the win-loss column, and they can easily redeem themselves later tonight on the second game of the series. But losses like this require someone to take accountability, and Red Sox manager Alex Cora took the initiative to do so.
“It seems like there was a team that was prepared for the other one. The other one wasn't prepared for them. And that goes from the 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,” Cora said in his postgame presser, via Tyler Milliken of 98.5 The Sports Hub.
But as much as Cora would want to take the blame, it's not like he was the one who threw some absolute meatballs to the Rays; Tanner Houck, if anyone, deserves to take accountability for the loss, as he allowed a bonkers 11 earned runs in 2.1 innings of work. Perhaps Cora could have pulled him earlier, but it's not wise either to overtax the bullpen this early in a series.
Regardless, this is simply a night to forget for the Red Sox, and they will look to go again and avenge this brutal 15-run loss when they face the Rays tomorrow on 7:05 PM E.T.
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Inconsistency is the name of the game for the Red Sox
The Red Sox were very vocal of their plans to compete in the AL East this past offseason, and yet the start of the 2025 season is proving to be more of the same of 2024. Last season, they finished 81-81, unable to string together a strong run of play that can push them far away (in a positive way) from the .500 mark.
The good news is that no team in the AL East has separated itself from the pack yet, and with two games left in their series against the Rays, the Red Sox have a golden opportunity to start making their mark.
