For a Boston team haunted by self-inflicted wounds, Friday’s 10-3 blowout loss to the Orioles provided a new, maddening chapter. Yes, they still scored 3 runs, which equals what they scored in the series against the Yankees, but something that is haunting the Red Sox this year is their on-field goof-up.

And if you ask manager Alex Cora, he blames Marcelo Mayer:

“The way it ended, we’ve got to be better than that. That’s something we’ve been talking about, playing the right way regardless of the situation. We’ve got to be smart. We cannot make those mistakes. They know it. We’ve got a bunch of kids who are learning the game. It’s my job to keep teaching them the game.”

The ninth inning started with a glimmer of hope as Trevor Story singled, and Marcelo Mayer followed with a hit of his own. When Caleb Durbin also singled, the Red Sox had suddenly loaded the bases with nobody out, putting the tying run on first.

However, things went downhill after Carlos Narvaez stepped up to the plate. He flew out to the right. However, when Dylan Beavers threw the ball back from right to the Orioles catcher, it was so fast that Story couldn’t cover home plate. He stayed back at the third, but Mayer was already far away from the second by then.

The ball went back to the Orioles’ shortstop, Blaze Alexander, by then, and he didn’t miss tagging Mayer out. The result was a double-play, and the Red Sox failed to score. The inning then didn’t last long as Jarren Duran popped out to third.

Now, while Cora made it clear that Mayer made a mistake and needs to be smart in such cases, a few questions were still unanswered. Despite Cora putting Mayer on notice, we wonder if Mayer is still in the learning phase, despite playing 44 games last year. Before debuting in MLB last year, Mayer had played 315 games in the minors.

The Red Sox are currently standing last in the AL East with a 9-17 record, and surely Marcelo Mayer takes the major blame, but there are others to be blamed too.

Veteran and starter add to the Red Sox’s slump

The fly-ball off Narvaez went to right field, and a bit of an aggressive approach could help Story cover home plate. Mayer could have covered the third by then, and the Red Sox would have another run added.

But Story stayed defensive and didn’t move from third. Sure, it was Mayer’s call to guard second base, but the 33-year-old veteran could still save Mayer from getting tagged.

Bryan Bello started for Boston and was roughed up. He pitched just 3.1 innings, allowing eight earned runs on eight hits, five of which were home runs. With that, he is now standing with a 9.00 ERA this season. So, while the team couldn’t manage anything on offense, their defense was just as clueless against the Orioles.

“We’re here to compete, be prepared. We go out there and do our best. Regardless of the situation, you’ve got to keep competing, and he actually did. I’ll give him that. But we’ve got to figure it out,” Cora said about Bello.

Cora is trying to make things work, but after the first 26 games of this season, we have yet to see any improvement on the Red Sox.