CHICAGO — On a night when the Red Sox had five errors for the first time since 2021, Triston Casas’ was the most costly.
With one out and a man on first in a game the White Sox led, 2-0, catcher Omar Narváez chopped a grounder toward Casas, giving him the chance at an inning-ending double play. But Casas bobbled the ball and didn’t record an out, allowing the inning to go on. Chicago would string three straight two-out hits together to go up 6-0, then cruised to an 11-1 victory in the series opener at Rate Field.
Blake Sabol’s two catcher’s interference calls, Ceddanne Rafaela’s bobble in center and a fielding error from Josh Winckowski were largely inconsequential. Casas’ miscue wasn’t — and he knows it.
“It’s just a play that’s gotta be made,” Casas said. “It’s an unrealistic thing to do to point out one play in the game and say, ‘That’s why we lost.’ But that’s a pretty clear one with that specific one. It pretty much changed the course of the game for the worst. I’ve replayed it in my head so many times already.”
Manager Alex Cora went out of his way during the first week of the season to praise Casas’ improvements at first base and thought the strides would be a tone-setter for a new-look infield that includes Kristian Campbell and Alex Bregman on either side of shortstop Trevor Story. So far, the results haven’t been there for a Red Sox group with high expectations as the group’s 19 errors are the club’s most through 15 games since 1996.
The larger story with Casas to start the year, however, has been on the offensive side of things. On Friday, he went 1-for-4 with a strikeout and late double but still did not deliver when the Sox needed him most. In the third, with two men in scoring position and two outs, he popped up on the first pitch he saw to end the inning.
The line for Casas thus far is an ugly one: he’s hitting just .176 with three doubles, a homer, 16 strikeouts and four walks through 55 plate appearances.
“If I had an answer, I would’ve already fixed it,” Casas said. “It’s something that I’m working on every day and just coming into the ballpark, with a positive mindset. Turning the page from yesterday, hoping that today’s the day that I break out in the way that I feel like I can and have in the past hasn’t happened so far.
“I’m just missing a lot of mistakes right in the heart of the plate and getting behind in the count doesn’t help,” he explained. “But even when I’m behind in the count, I’m still getting pitches to hit that I’m not, and that’s that’s a recipe for not getting the quality of contact and results that I need. So I think it’s gonna, be a battle of finding a way to be more aggressive early in the count.
Casas said his swing mechanics feel good and he feels like he’s on time in the box. The issue? Hand-eye coordination, said Casas, who added that he doesn’t think he is being too selective at the plate in the early goings.
“I think I’m just missing under the ball,” Casas said. “I don’t know if it’s my depth perception. I don’t know if it’s the backdrops, just early in the year. But I think it’s just my hand-eye coordination right now.
“I go back to the third base views sometimes with my swings. I like the timing that I’ve had. I feel like my arms are inside my body. I’m making contact right where I want to in terms of timing. But I’m just under the ball a lot, missing a lot of pitches.
Casas hasn’t been the only Red Sox hitter to struggle in recent days as the club has mustered just nine runs (1.8 per game) since Monday. The struggles with runners in scoring position continued Friday as Boston was 1-for-9 with nine men left on base.
On Friday, though, the defense told the story as the Red Sox continued to not execute in any part of the game.
“A lot of plays that have to be made that weren’t,” Casas said. “It’s tough when you’re not scoring runs to play bad defense. That leads to losses. It’s just something we’ve got to clean up. It has been an issue for the first couple games of the season but I have confidence we’re going to do better moving forward and getting the bats going as well. That’s gonna help.”
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