Saturday night at Fenway Park, the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox are wrapping up their one-and-a-half-header. Their game Friday night was suspended due to rain in the fourth inning, and the two teams finished the game Saturday afternoon (NY 5, BOS 4). They then played their regularly scheduled game Saturday night (GameTracker).
The Red Sox took an early 2-0 lead against Max Scherzer in the night game -- Jarren Duran and Triston Casas hit solo home runs -- though the Mets rallied to take a 3-2 lead in the fourth, the Boston defense had a hand in it. The Red Sox turned Jeff McNeil's two-out, two-run single into a Little League homer when Duran's throw home airmailed the cutoff man, and catcher Jorge Alfaro threw the ball into center field when McNeil advanced to second. Look at this chaos:
That's really bad. And, to make matters worse, this is not the first time this season the Red Sox misplayed a single into a Little League homer exactly like that. On June 4, Tampa Bay Rays slugger Yandy Díaz poked a single through the right side, the throw home missed the cutoff man and the catcher's throw sailed into center field, allowing Díaz to score like McNeil.
Here is Díaz's Little League homer on June 4. It's difficult to do this once in a season, let alone twice, but the Red Sox found a way.
"I don't like it, man. I don't like it. I've seen that play too many times the past two years," Red Sox manager Alex Cora told MLB.com following Díaz's Little League homer on June 4. He saw it again Saturday. I can't imagine Cora is happy about it.
Defense has been an issue for the Red Sox all season. They have revolving doors at second base and shortstop -- 38-year-old Justin Turner started at second base Wednesday and you don't see many players that age playing the middle infield -- and they entered play Saturday ranked dead last with minus-42 outs above average. The next worst team, the Colorado Rockies, is at minus-15. Yeesh.
Despite their league-worst defense, the Red Sox remain in the postseason hunt and are 2.5 games behind the AL East rival Toronto Blue Jays for the third and final wild-card spot.
