At the start of spring training, manager Alex Cora honed in on defense. He felt it was a weakness that needed to be a point of emphasis for the Red Sox in the 2021 campaign.
So much so, Cora and his coaching staff designed different defensive stations to allow players to get as many efficient repetitions as possible in a structured game-type environment.
Yet two games into this 162-game season, defense has betrayed the Red Sox, resulting in a pair of season-opening setbacks..
In Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park, Boston’s defensive miscues derailed an otherwise stellar outing by Red Sox rookie righthander Tanner Houck, who dazzled through the first three frames of his five-inning stint, allowing three runs on six hits while ringing up eight strikeouts.
“Between the four-seam and the two-seam fastball, I’m incredibly happy with those,” Houck said afterward. “It’s always been something I’ve been comfortable with along with the sliders. So things are kind of coming together.”
Houck’s outing, however, took an unfortunate turn for the worse in the fourth inning when a crucial fielding error by third baseman Rafael Devers allowed the Orioles to break a scoreless stalemate and push across a pair of runs with two outs.
Houck seemed well on his way to a 1-2-3 inning when he got Anthony Santander to lead off with a groundout to the mound and then induced Ryan Mountcastle to fly out to center field. However, when Houck walked the third batter he faced in the inning, Rio Ruiz, which set the stage for a calamity.
Devers made a sliding grab of a sharply-struck grounder by Austin Hays then threw to second for what would have been an inning-ending force out on Ruiz, but air-mailed his throw over the outstretched glove of Red Sox second baseman Marwin Gonzalez and into right field.
It allowed the Orioles to put two runners in scoring position. Ruiz went to third on Devers’ throwing error and Hays reached base and advanced to second on an errant pitch to Maikel Franco that got past by Red Sox catcher Kevin Plawecki.
Houck continued to battle, running the count to 1-2 against Franco, who ripped a 94.7-mile-per-hour fastball from Houck up the middle for a 2-RBI single that scored Ruiz and Hays and gave the Orioles a 2-0 lead.
Houck got out of the inning when caught Freddy Galvis looking at an 83-m.p.h. slider for a called third strike.
It seemed a nightmarish flashback to the defensive miscues of Opening Day on Friday, when second baseman Kiké Hernández booted a hard-hit ball by Santander in the sixth inning of a 3-0 setback.
The Orioles had runners on first and second with one out. In what appeared to be a routine double-play ball, turned anything but when the sure-handed Hernández committed an error. It resulted in a pair of runs crossing the plate when Mountcastle doubled off the Green Monster.
“Out of the three phases of the game,” Cora said, “the defense part of it is the one that has been disappointing in the first two games.”
Unlike Hernández, there are questions still surrounding Devers’s defense.
It followed him into spring following his league-leading 14 errors in 2020. Now, it’s present again after just two games. On Saturday’s mishap, Devers flashed his range, something he’s revealed to be a strong suit at third base. But he has been prone to get a bit too greedy, cutting off shortstop Xander Bogaerts from making an easier play and spinning out of control trying to do too much.
It seemed the same factors applied on this play.
“We keep talking about his defense,” Cora said of Devers. “He wants to make every play, and, you know, [he’s] just got to make better decisions. We love the effort. I mean, that was a ball way to his left, he gets to it.
“But he’s got to know who he has [next to him].”
Despite the blunder, the Sox responded with a sacrifice fly by Gonzalez, who drove in designated hitter J.D. Martinez in the bottom of the inning after he had reached on a sharply-struck grounder to left off Orioles starter Matt Harvey.
The Orioles added an insurance run with two out in the fifth on Santander’s RBI single off Houck that scored catcher Pedro Severino, who reached on a lead-off double. But again the Red Sox had a response in the bottom half of the frame when Martinez hit a grounder that ricocheted off Harvey’s leg, scoring Kevin Plawecki, who had singled and went to second after Enrique Hernandez drew a walk.
The Orioles padded their lead in the seventh when Trey Mancini’s sacrifice fly scored their final run of the contest. The Sox continued to battle and had the winning run at the plate with two on and no outs. However, the Sox came up empty when Franchy Cordero struck out, Christian Vázquez lined to left, and Hernández grounded to second to end the game.
“I mean, we put some good swings [on the ball],” Cora said. “This part of the season, though, gets magnified. Obviously, we know we can be better. We feel we’re better.”
Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @byJulianMack.
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