Self-inflicted damage via defensive miscues sinks Sox vs. Fish

BOSTON -- Ahead of the series opener against the Marlins, Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom discussed the makeup of this year's club. They have solid pitching and a decent, albeit streaky, offense. But on defense?

“Defensively is where we need to tighten up the most, that’s no secret,” Bloom told MLB.com. “Just need to watch us play for a little to see that.”

Though the official scorer didn’t charge them with any errors, the Red Sox had several defensive miscues in their 10-1 loss to Miami on Tuesday night at Fenway Park. The defeat snapped a streak of 10 straight wins over the Marlins at home dating back to 2012, their longest such streak against a National League team.

“We've got to keep talking to them,” manager Alex Cora said. “We talked about it today and we did it again, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow. That’s the only way we can do it. We can take all the infield [practice] in the world and take ground balls like we’ve been doing since Spring Training -- there’s nothing new.

“We’ve been doing this from the get-go. But decisions in the game, we've got to be smarter. And it’s on us to keep talking and keep preaching and keep showing them. And hopefully we can start making better decisions out there.”

The first mistake came in the top of the second on a bouncing ground ball hit by Joey Wendle to shortstop David Hamilton. The 25-year-old infielder, ranked as Boston’s No. 26 prospect per MLB Pipeline, made a sliding stop and fired the ball to first baseman Triston Casas, who had to lay out to make an attempt at a play. Wendle went 4-for-4 on the night, with his four hits having expected batting averages of .110, .150, .170 and .350.

The next inning, Jean Segura reached first after grounding into a fielder's choice. Second baseman Kiké Hernández fielded the ball, firing to Hamilton for the out at second before Hamilton lobbed a high throw to Casas. In the fourth, Wendle singled when his liner caught the glove of Casas and skipped toward the outfield grass. Wendle came around to score two batters later. Casas again had to lay out in the sixth, when Rafael Devers fielded a 67.7 mph ball hit by Bryan De La Cruz. Devers made an off-the-mark throw to first, resulting in a single for De La Cruz.

“It’s tough to kind of put a stop to things when they are rolling,” Casas said. “But it’s not for a lack of effort -- it’s not for a lack of concentration. Like I keep saying: All our uniforms are dirty, we’re out there going hard. Sometimes the ball -- it’s hard to grip out of the glove and it’s hard to throw across the diamond. Balls spin different ways. That’s the game, it’s just about who can be the cleanest fundamentally.”

Entering Tuesday, the Red Sox ranked last in the Majors with -23 outs above average. The next-closest team? The Twins with -17 OAA. Per FanGraphs, Boston’s -12.3 defensive value is sixth worst, with Miami’s -18.1 mark ranking the worst.

The Sox have committed the second-most errors in the Majors with 53, behind just the Giants (58). Hernández leads the team with 14 errors, surpassing his previous career high as an infielder of five in a season. Devers (eight errors) has the second most on the team, followed by Enmanuel Valdez and Connor Wong, who have each made six.

“You’re not going to make every single play, but we need to make routine plays routine,” Bloom said, “and just make sure we are backing up our pitchers with the support that they’ve deserved for a while now.”

Three of Boston’s four defensive misplays came with starter Garrett Whitlock on the mound. After giving up four runs over seven innings in his previous outing against Minnesota, Whitlock was tagged for six runs on 11 hits (including two homers) over 4 2/3 innings. The right-hander didn’t issue a walk and he matched a season high with seven strikeouts.

“When we play good defense, we win games,” Cora said. “When we give the opposition an extra 90 [feet], we don’t make plays, we don’t turn double plays, we put ourselves in a bad spot. Our pitchers, for how good they are, they’re not a swing-and-miss staff, and we have to make plays. And we have to make sure we limit the damage, and we didn’t do it today.”