Red Sox Coaches Under Fire After Brutal Decisions in Loss to Twins

Of all the terrible losses for the Boston Red Sox so far this season, Sunday's took the cake.

Looking to avoid an embarrassing sweep at home against the Minnesota Twins, the Red Sox had about eight chances to put the game away through various means. Carlos Narváez dropping a throw from left field to allow an insurance run in the eighth inning was killer, but Connor Wong getting thrown out at the plate on a ball off the Green Monster that was feet away from a walk-off home run was the low moment of the season.

Third base coach Chad Epperson, as one might imagine, has been on the receiving end of a lot of insults from Red Sox fans in the wake of this play, which saw Isiah Kiner-Falefa come about as close to his first home run in a Red Sox uniform as anyone could have predicted. Worse, Kiner-Falefa seemed to think it was gone off the bat, giving fans a moment of fleeting triumph. 

Epperson might have been misled in his decision by Wong's horrible read off the bat. Somehow, the backup catcher didn't have enough confidence that the ball would get off the wall to break into a full sprint, instead waiting an extra two or three seconds to make sure neither the left fielder nor center fielder would get to it.

Interim manager Chad Tracy, while not involved with the Kiner-Falefa/Wong play, is also taking a beating in the postgame fallout for defending Epperson's send. Tracy defended the move based on the conditions, which were soaking wet and probably influenced Narváez not catching Jarren Duran's throw from left field on the aforementioned play in the eighth. 

However, as many baseball fans will know by heart, making the second out of the inning at home plate is something of a cardinal sin. It's not quite on par with making the first or third out at third base, but it's something you truly don't want to do when the game is on the line unless it's going to take a perfect throw to get you.

"Good thing they fired (Alex) Cora this guy's a real ****ing genius," one fan wrote in the replies of Tyler Milliken's tweet publicizing Tracy's remarks.

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Getting swept by the Twins to fall to 8-17 at home on the season was patently embarrassing. The way the Red Sox lost, however, was just indicative of how rudderless this season seems to have become. 

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