After getting swept by the Yankees, the Red Sox went down against the Orioles in the first game by 3-10. Yes, they still scored 3 runs, which equals what they scored in the series against the Yankees, but something that is haunting Boston this year is their on-field goof-up.

The Red Sox never looked like a dominating team on Friday, but still, they had all bases loaded with no outs in the 9th. A grand slam or at least a few runs were just around the corner. Goof up struck, and suddenly they were double-played with no runs added. And according to manager Alex Cora, the blame lies with Marcelo Mayer.

“The way it ended, we’ve got to be better than that. That’s something we’ve been talking about, playing the right way regardless of the situation. We’ve got to be smart,” Cora said after the loss against the Orioles. “We cannot make those mistakes. They know it. We’ve got a bunch of kids who are learning the game. It’s my job to keep teaching them the game.”

Call it a gaffe or just a brain-fade moment, the Red Sox ended their last inning with 0 outs and all bases loaded to no runs scored from the inning.

Boston started their 9th inning with Trevor Story hitting a single off Cameron Foster. Mayer entered and took a hit to the right. Another single and Story and Mayer covered second and first base, respectively. Caleb Durbin entered, and another single covered all bases.

However, tragedy struck after Carlos Narvaez entered the plate. He hit a fly ball to the right and was caught out. However, the ball was thrown back from the right by Dylan Beavers to the Orioles catcher so fast that Story couldn’t cover the home plate. He stayed back at the third, but Mayer was already far away from the second by then.

The ball went back to the Orioles’ shortstop, Blaze Alexander, by then, and he didn’t miss tagging Mayer out. No score for the Red Sox with a double-play. The inning then didn’t last long as Jarren Duran popped out to the third.

Now, while Cora made it clear that Mayer made a mistake and he needs to be smart enough in these cases, a few questions were still unanswered. Despite Cora putting Mayer on notice about getting things right, we wonder if Mayer is still in the learning phase despite playing 44 games last year. Before debuting in MLB last year, Mayer had played 315 games in the Minors.

And even if Mayer is in the learning phase, the veterans are making errors as well.

More names to be attributed to the Red Sox’s slump

The Red Sox are currently standing last in the AL East with a 9-17 record, and surely Marcelo Mayer is not the only one to be blamed.

For instance, in the ninth-inning gaffe on Friday, it was 33-year-old Trevor Story also to blame. The fly-ball off Narvaez went to right field, and a bit of an aggressive approach could help Story cover the home plate. Mayer could have covered the third by then, and the Red Sox would have another run added.

But Story stayed defensive and didn’t move from the third. “Mayer was playing it right, tagging to go, Story should have had that mindset, and then it’s a run scored and Mayer on 3rd. Story f—– it up,” one fan reacted to the play.

So, more than Mayer not being smart enough, it was Trevor Story’s defensive play that cost the Red Sox a run and a double-play. Cora has yet to speak about this.

One Friday, Bryan Bello started for Boston, and he roughed it up. He pitched just 3.1 innings, allowing eight earned runs on eight hits, 5 of which were home runs! With that, he is now standing with a 9.00 ERA this season. So, while the team couldn’t manage anything in offense, their defense was just as clueless against the Orioles.

“We’re here to compete, be prepared. We go out there and do our best. Regardless of the situation, you’ve got to keep competing, and he actually did. I’ll give him that. But we’ve got to figure it out,” Cora said about Bello.

Cora is trying to make things work, but after the first 26 games of this season, we have yet to see any improvements on the Red Sox.