The Boston Red Sox were swept by the Cardinals over the weekend and dropped to last in the AL East. Here are the players to blame for the skid.
Entering the weekend in fourth place in the AL East but in overall a great spot in the American League, it seemed like a prime opportunity for the Boston Red Sox to make up some ground and keep trending in the right direction as they welcomed the struggling St. Louis Cardinals to Fenway Park.
Instead, the Red Sox went out and lost three straight to the Cards, dropping to last place in the division as a result of the sweep and certainly leaving the fan base feeling much worse than they had prior to the three-game series.
As much as a mid-May series can be, it was truly a disastrous result for the Red Sox. And if we're looking where to place blame for the sweep at the hands of the Cardinals, we have some ideas as to who the culprits are.
Red Sox to blame: Kiké Hernandez
Kiké Hernandez only played in two games in the series against St. Louis as he was on the bench for the Sunday Night Baseball finale, but his impact was certainly negative for Boston when he was on the field.
After seeming to turn it around previously, Hernandez was wholly unable to take advantage of a struggling Cardinals pitching staff in his two starts, going just 1-for-7 with a single, no runs scored and no RBI to his credit. Perhaps the best thing that could be said of his performance at the plate was that he only accrued one strikeout.
However, the most glaring example came on Saturday when the Red Sox had a 3-2 lead coming into the top of the ninth with one out. Kenley Jansen drew an easy groundball to second baseman Pablo Reyes that should have been a game-ending double play. But after Reyes flipped to Hernandez, the shortstop rushed the throw, sent it too low and bouncing into the dugout, allowing two runs to score and the Cardinals to take the lead.
Hernandez has now committed nine errors on the season, speaking to one of the big concerns in the wake of Xander Bogaerts' departure and Trevor Story's injury. When you combine that type of extremely costly fielding error with his poor performance in the lineup, it's clear that Kiké deserves quite a bit of blame.
Red Sox to blame: Justin Turner
In the two-game set prior to the Cardinals series against the Braves, veteran offseason addition Justin Turner was a stud for the Red Sox. He went 3-for-5 with a home run, a double, two walks, two RBI and three runs scored. The hope was that, considering how solid he'd been overall on the year, that he was about to take off.
Unfortunately, the opposite was true. In the first game of the series, Turner did look solid as he drew two walks and scored a run despite going 0-for-2, but things then took a turn for the worse as he went just 1-for-8 over the final two games in the series, including three strikeouts.
Yes, Turner doubled and scored in the Saturday loss that resulted from the Hernandez error in the final frame, but the fact of the matter is that the former Dodger just didn't deliver consistent results and, with his high strikeout rate in the series, he was an issue for the Red Sox in killing any rallies as well.
This shouldn't be a long-tmer concern for Turner as he's still bee good overall for Boston as a veteran bat in the lineup, hitting .265 on the year with a .746 OPS. Having said that, he needs to be less hot and cold given what we've seen, especially in matchups against teams like the Cardinals that have been struggling to get outs consistently.
Red Sox to blame: Kenley Jansen and the bullpen
Outside of Corey Kluber on Sunday, who got shelled for four runs, including two home runs, while allowing 10 baserunners over five innings, the Red Sox had to like what they saw from their starters in the series against the Cardinals. Chris Sale gave up just three hits, one walk and one run over 8.0 innings on Saturday and James Paxton's debut was solid with four hits, one walk and two runs allowed over five innings while striking out nine.
The bullpen was a different matter entirely. Over a combined nine innings pitched, the bullpen gave up 13 earned runs against St. Louis.
Ryan Brasier was predictably bad, giving up three runs over 3.1 innings of work across two appearances while Brennan Bernardino and Josh Winckowski didn't help in the slightest either as they gave up a combined five runs over 2.1 combined innings of work.
No one was more emblematic of the bullpen's issues than Kenley Jansen. After earning his 400th career save on Wednesday against the Braves, the Red Sox closer was shelled on Friday night, recording no outs while giving up three hits, a walk and three earned runs to blow the save. He then blew another save on Saturday, though he gave up just one hit, allowing two earned runs (three in total) while walking three batters, giving him a ripe 45.00 ERA for the series.
Jansen has been light out overall this season but his last two outings have been horrendous. They also both cost the Red Sox wins against an entirely beatble Cardinals team.