Offense goes cold as the Red Sox lose two out of three to the Blue Jays

Game Three Thoughts: Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 2

• The approaches at the plate today were just terrible. It’s one thing to not put runs on the board, but it’s another thing to not even put pressure on the pitcher. Gausman threw just 88 pitches over eight innings, including an incredible 70 of them for strikes, and only one runner reached second base off the right-hander
• Rafael Devers is particular deserves some criticism. He is mired in his first slump of the season, but instead of being patient and looking for a pitch to drive, he is trying the bold maneuver of swinging at everything the pitcher throws. Of the eight pitches Gausman threw out of the zone on Thursday, Devers swung at six of them, resulting in three fouls and three weak ground balls. Devers has the bat-to-ball skills to make contact on any pitch, but even he can’t drive a pitch in the dirt.
• Travis Shaw isn’t a major league player anymore. Again, it’s not just that he 0 for his first 13. It’s that he has yet to give a Red Sox a single quality at-bat. The fact that he bunted while ahead in the count 2-0 tells you everything you need to know about how things are going at the plate.
• It was at least nice to see the Red Sox put something together in the bottom of the ninth. Even though the rally fell short, it was the first time since Sunday they looked competent on offense. That should give them some momentum headed into the next series
• You can’t blame Bobby Dalbec for not getting the tying run in with a runner on third and one out. He got a pitch to drive and he hit it 103 miles per hour. He just hit it right at somebody.
• On the bright side, Xander Bogaerts had another 3-for-4 day and is now up to .354 on the season. That’s something that would have been unthinkable a couple of days ago.
• There’s no excuse for that ball dropping in the middle of the infield in the sixth inning to bring in the third Blue Jays’ run. That’s something last-place teams do. Dalbec has to call that ball.
• Tanner Houck was not nearly as sharp as he was on Saturday again the Twins, but he still gave the Sox a chance to win. The one point of criticism was his leadoff walk to rookie Gouske Katoh to start the Blue Jay’s third inning rally. You can’t walk a guy like that
• Houck’s whiff rate is also something to monitor. His swing-and-miss percentage on his fastball, slider and sinker have all significantly decreased from last year. He’s still been effective, but at a certain point the lack of swings-and-misses is going to catch up to him.