BOSTON — Catcher Carlos Narváez spoke with urgency after the Red Sox’ 4-2 loss to the Yankees on Thursday.
New York swept the three-game series here at Fenway Park, limiting Boston to three runs and only 13 hits in 27 innings.
“We’ve been saying ‘I know it’s early,’ but we cannot have that mentality,” Narváez said. “OK. It’s time to go. We’ve got to flush it. Of course, it doesn’t feel right, but we’ve got to flush it.”
Boston dropped to 9-16 and sits in last place in the AL East, seven games behind the first-place Yankees. The Sox will fly to Baltimore tonight. They have three games against the Orioles beginning Friday. They then play three games in Toronto on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We’ve got six important games on the road,” Narváez said. “We cannot be stuck in the mindset like, ‘OK, yeah. We’ve gotta be better.’ No. Of course we know we’ve gotta be better. We’re working on it. We work every single game, every single day. And it’s just about time, OK. At the same time we’re grinding. The most important thing is the next three games and then the next three games. That’s gotta be the focus right now.”
The Red Sox were held to four hits Thursday, marking the sixth time this season they have been held to four hits or fewer. They have scored two or fewer runs in six of their past seven games.
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Narváez homered Thursday, just Boston’s 14th home run this season. The Red Sox are tied with the Giants for the fewest home runs in the majors. They have MLB’s worst slugging percentage (.331).
Narváez’s urgency comes one day after Jarren Duran said Red Sox players were putting pressure on themselves.
“Honestly, reading some of the quotes (from players), we’re taking losing very hard, which is not usual, right, but it’s a different group,” manager Alex Cora said before Thursday’s game. “So we have to make sure you stay the course, understand where you’re at in the season. Is it a bad start? Yes, it is. We know that. But we’ve got plenty of time to get back to .500 and make our move and get to where we want to get.”
Several Red Sox players have expressed frustration with the team’s slow start, showing they have taken losing hard.
Trevor Story said on April 1 after the team went 1-5 on its first road trip, “This is unacceptable.”
After Boston dropped to 2-7 nearly three weeks ago on April 5, Roman Anthony said, “This is unacceptable. It’s unacceptable to the fans.”
After Tuesday’s loss, Willson Contreras said, “We have to own it. We have to find a way to get better.”
“I mean, we just got to keep playing. That’s it,” Cora said. “It’s still early. It’s April, so we’ve just got to play.”
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