Saturday was a rough day for the Boston Red Sox. For starters, the Red Sox dropped a crucial game to the AL East rival Toronto Blue Jays (TOR 5, BOS 4) to fall four games behind the third and final American League wild-card spot. The game ended when Reese McGuire got doubled off second base on Connor Wong’s deep drive to center field.
Here is McGuire’s game-ending base-running mistake:
“It was a bad baseball play all around for us,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said about McGuire’s mistake (via Boston Sports Journal). “We all thought it was gone.”
Boston’s trouble started a few hours before Saturday’s game, however. Red Sox right fielder Alex Verdugo was scratched from the starting lineup with the team officially calling it a “manager’s decision.” After the game, a clearly agitated Cora said “everybody has to be available every single day here” when asked why Verdugo was benched. From MassLive.com:
“Just a manager’s decision. I don’t really wanna go too far into it. It’s his decision and that’s what we went with,” Verdugo said about Saturday’s benching (per MassLive). “Obviously, I want to be available and I want to help in big parts and I want to help this team win. All we can do now is look forward to tomorrow, come here and be ready to play.”
Verdugo, 27, was reportedly available at the trade deadline. He started the season extremely well, but has cooled off considerably in recent weeks, with his .157/.245/.277 batting line since July 1 dragging his season batting line down to .270/.343/.424. The Red Sox acquired Verdugo as the centerpiece in the Mookie Betts trade.
