Bogaerts looks ahead after frustrations boil over in opener

BALTIMORE -- Xander Bogaerts, who normally rides the ups and downs of games and seasons with a calm demeanor, let it all out on Friday night at Camden Yards.

The match was lit when Bogaerts struck out on a 2-2 pitch from Orioles righty Jordan Lyles that appeared to be a touch low and out of the strike zone in the fourth inning of a wild game the Red Sox lost, 15-10.

Standing right near home plate umpire Todd Tichenor, Bogaerts flung his bat in frustration. Then he hollered something at Tichenor, and that led to the star shortstop being ejected for only the second time in his career.

In truth, the moment had been weeks in the making.

During this critical month of August in which the Red Sox have been trying to fight their way back into contention but instead have been treading water, Bogaerts has felt powerless to help. For the month, he has a line of .224/.258/.328 with one homer and four RBIs in 62 plate appearances.

“Who would have known a pitch call would make me like that?” said Bogaerts. “Yeah, I have not been very pleased with the way I’ve been playing. It’s definitely frustrating when you hold yourself to a high standard and you feel like you’re not helping out. It’s very rough.”

Moments after Bogaerts got thrown out, Red Sox manager Alex Cora suffered the same fate for the fourth time this season.

“We thought the pitch was a ball,” said Cora. “He slammed his bat and then he said something else. I was late getting there. I need to be quicker. I don’t want him to get thrown out. If anyone’s going to get thrown out in that situation, it’s me. We both got thrown out. But I was late. I was just upset.”

Perhaps Bogaerts didn’t realize how much he needed to blow off steam until he actually did it. It isn’t just the hitting slump. The Red Sox have been underachieving for most of the season, and that has been weighing on Bogaerts. Also, his best friend on the team, catcher Christian Vázquez, was traded on Aug. 1.

“It’s a lot of frustration with the way I'm playing and not being able to help to the capacity I know I'm capable of,” Bogaerts said. “I just kind of lost it there for a minute and it felt pretty OK just letting everything out. Sometimes, you feel like you have a lot of stuff bottled up and I'm not the guy to come in and throw my helmet down or hit my bat and break it against the bat rack, stuff like that.

“I wasn’t expecting to do this tonight, but I actually feel better. I’m sorry it was on the umpire, I'm sorry it was to him. I let my team down coming out of the game but with all I’m going through, it felt good afterwards.”

Maybe the release of tension will allow Bogaerts to start hitting like himself again starting on Saturday. This isn’t the first prolonged slump of his career and it won’t be the last.

“Plenty [of slumps],” said Bogaerts. “And you know what, I came out of all of them. When you come out of it, you look back and you probably laugh. You’re like, ‘Man, I couldn't figure this out quicker?’ That’s the only thing that you always hit your head against the wall and you’re like, ‘It was just this? I could have got out of this three weeks ago.’”

With 42 games left in their season, the 59-61 Red Sox are five games back in the American League Wild Card standings.

“We’ve got to show up [Saturday] and win,” said Cora. “That’s it. It was not a fun night. We ended up losing. We’ve got to be ready for tomorrow.”

Friday marked a stretch of 12 straight games against teams Boston is trying to catch in the standings. This was not the ideal way to start such a critical batch of games.

“At this point, winning ballgames matters -- every one,” said Bogaerts. “If it’s against the Pirates, if it’s against the Yankees, if it’s against the Orioles, every one matters equally. Obviously playing a division rival, we’re trying to catch up with these guys. We still have two more games to go [in this series].”