The Los Angeles Angels just beat the Boston Red Sox 5–2, and swept them. With that, they now stand just 4th with a record of 40-42. Their batters are having a hard time making contact. And this time, the man with the blueprint, Alex Cora, didn’t hesitate to address it.
Boston’s lineup has been having trouble with the plate all season, and this set against the Angels made things worse. They struck out 33 times in three games, 14 of which were on Wednesday alone. That obvious number shows a team that has been missing breaking pitches and chasing fastballs incessantly.
What is the root? Cora said after the game, “If you follow us, we’ve been striking out since day one, so we need to make adjustments.” He let that sentence hit home, openly addressing a problem that has been bothering this team from the first swing in April. And numbers speak! Since April, they have 766 strikeouts, which puts them at 3rd in MLB for overall strikeouts.
Alex Cora on the Red Sox’s 14 K’s
“We’ve ben striking out since day one. We have to make adjustments.” pic.twitter.com/q0rS6Dzrco
— NESN (@NESN) June 25, 2025
And at the series finale game? The bats were quiet and didn’t do anything. They only got three hits, two of which were by Trevor Story. Yusei Kikuchi shut down their surge in the first inning by striking out a season-high 12 batters in seven strong frames. Jo Adell and Travis d’Arnaud hit solo home runs to tie the game, and Boston never recovered.
The Red Sox lost the first game badly, 9–5, after throwing away a 3–0 lead. The Angels scored four runs in the eighth inning, and Boston had trouble with 11 walks and control troubles on the mound.
They lost game two in extra innings, 3–2, after Christian Moore hit the tying shot in the eighth and the walk-off home run in the tenth. This was despite Garrett Crochet’s strong seven-inning, ten-strikeout performance. And in that game, it was not the only highlight. Cora’s ejection by umpire Alan Porter in the fifth inning for arguing a no-call on an obstruction at 2B.
Alex Bregman is still in IL, and after Devers, there has been a huge void. And the bats of new prospects like Marcelo Mayer are trying, but the results are required from every bat. The Red Sox have plenty of questions in front of them.
Amid the hitting struggles, the Red Sox are now dealing with yet another problem—an injury to their starter.
From strikeout slump to injury woes
The Red Sox’s problems started at the plate, where their hitters haven’t been able to hit the ball consistently since the season began. Even though there were some good moments, the squad kept getting stuck in the high-strikeout trap, which made it hard for them to put together rallies or keep up offensive pressure. Alex Cora and his staff pushed the bats hard, but the high hopes for the spring never came true.
As Cora worked on changing their thinking and making little changes to their mechanics, a wave of injuries hit, which slowed them down even more. In May, Tanner Houck, a key rotation component, was out with a flexor-pronator strain, leaving Boston scant behind their front-line starters.
Things got worse lately when Kutter Crawford hurt his wrist off the field, which meant he had to have surgery on top of his already long recovery from patellar tendinopathy. Cora said that the 29-year-old is “likely” done for the season, which takes away the rotation’s most reliable arms and makes the squad even more vulnerable.
Boston’s depth is really being challenged right now. Why? Tristan Casas, Alex Bregman (who is slated to return after the All-Star break), and Masataka Yoshida are all out. Can they find a solution soon? Or does Fenway Park have to witness some more sweeps?
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