The Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays played through historic cold temperatures in their April 9 tilt at Fenway Park.
Boston's weather has been recently unkind to the Red Sox. After a postponement due to rain in their series against the Cardinals and another misty night against Toronto on April 8, the Sox faced off against the Jays in 35-degree weather, the third-coldest first-pitch temperature in the recorded history of game times at Fenway Park, according to Baseball Reference.
The bad weather has gotten to the Sox on the field, and it shows up most in their defense. Boston clocked two errors against the Blue Jays in the bitter cold — Alex Bregman and Kristian Campbell both air-mailed routine throws to Romy González at first base. Bregman's overthrow came on what should've been the third out of the sixth inning, and Campbell's came two batters later, which allowed Davis Schneider to score from second base.
González isn't a full-time first baseman and Alex Cora has insisted on platooning Triston Casas against lefties, which could be part of the infield's struggles. But Boston is running out of excuses for its repeatedly lacking fundamentals. It's already up to 12 errors in the first 12 games of the season, two more than it had at this time last year, according to Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. The Red Sox led the American League in errors last season with 115.
The Red Sox signed Bregman for his righty bat and gritty plate presence, but his Gold Glove-winning defense at third base was definitely a factor. Yet, he has three errors in his first 12 games with Boston.
The Red Sox's defense is still lacking despite promotions and offseason additions
The Sox also seemed unusually insistent on promoting Campbell early this season despite other players posting better spring training performances on both sides of the ball. Campbell looked defensively solid early on, but he's now up to his second error on the year.
The infield isn't the only group to blame for the miscues. Connor Wong's defense has looked much cleaner in the season's early goings, but he's already incurred two catcher's interference calls, one of which resulted in a fractured hand and injured list stint. Jarren Duran and Rob Refsnyder have both failed to track a routine fly ball since the beginning of the Red Sox's current homestand.
Bad weather could be a factor in the Sox's rough defense, but it isn't an excuse. The Blue Jays played in the same conditions (and also made an error,) but looked more comfortable than Boston in all aspects of the game.
“I always say that we always complain about the weather in April, but we don’t in October,” Cora said. “So it is what it is. We’re here. We needed to play the game and we get another one tomorrow.”
The Red Sox are in for another cold game on April 9, with a forecast in the mid-to-low 30s again. They need to win to have a chance to split their first series of the season with the Blue Jays, and cleaner defense will be necessary to do it. Boston didn't move its franchise player to designated hitter and risk upsetting team chemistry to be a worse defensive team than last year — the Red Sox need to get to the root of their defensive issues before they get out of hand.