BOSTON -- Red Sox manager Alex Cora was so excited about his team playing baseball games at Fenway Park that he woke up at 4 a.m. on Tuesday, the day of the home opener.

His team was filled with good vibrations after going 7-3 on a season-opening, three-city trip to the West Coast.

“I know we make jokes about the vibe, but the vibe is real,” Cora said Tuesday morning. “I could tell yesterday, a lot of people came up to me, excited about the team, excited about the way we’re playing. It’s fun.”

Then the home games actually started, and very little has been fun for the Red Sox. On Friday, the club slipped to 0-4 on their opening homestand with the roughest performance so far, a 7-0 loss to the Angels.

The vibe that was good just a few short days ago had soured audibly in the early innings on Friday, as the boo-birds rained down after the latest collection of defensive miscues. There were three errors in the first three innings.

“We don't like losing, especially in front of our home fans,” Red Sox outfielder Tyler O’Neill said. “It’s no fun. Obviously, we want to put up more of a fight than we are right now. Just keep competing every day. Obviously, a couple tough losses in a row [are] not making us feel too good. A little fire under our butts [is] coming up pretty soon.”

The troubles started early Friday. Mike Trout, the third hitter of the game, smacked a grounder to David Hamilton that seemed to have double play written all over it. But the rookie shortstop made a high throw to second that Pablo Reyes couldn’t catch. Instead of two outs, the Sox got none.

Then, Taylor Ward stepped up and hit a grounder to second that Reyes bobbled, and the Sox could only get one out at second rather than the double play it could have been.

For the Red Sox, double plays have become double trouble.

“We got two ground balls that you should turn into double plays,” Cora said. “We didn’t do it. They scored three and put us in a bad spot.”

Boston is currently last in fielding percentage (.969) and errors (16). Their 11 fielding errors were four more than any other team at the conclusion of Friday night’s game.

The Sox gifted the Angels another run in the third on a single up the middle by Brandon Drury. Nolan Schanuel was being held at third, but center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela’s throw got by the cutoff man, and Schanuel came in with a third unearned run against starter Tanner Houck.

“There’s no play at the plate, so we have to knock it down,” Cora said. “That ball can’t go by. Those are the ones that really bother me. The physical ones, they're part of it. We will make mistakes, They will make errors. I made errors. I know how it works. It's part of it, but the other ones are the ones that we have to eliminate, the mental ones.”

While the defense had been the glaring issue with the team while enduring a three-game sweep against the Orioles, the offense was also stifled on Friday.

Playing again without Rafael Devers (sore left shoulder), the offense mustered three hits off Reid Detmers over 6 1/3 innings and none against the Angels’ bullpen.

“Just couldn’t get anything going,” O’Neill said. “It's one of those days the bats went cold out there. We didn't play great defense collectively. It was not a great game overall.”

Though Houck certainly deserved a better fate (three of the seven runs he allowed were unearned), he also gave up 12 hits in 5 2/3 innings.

By and large, however, the starting rotation has been the overwhelming strength during the team’s 7-7 start.

Following Thursday’s extra-inning loss, Cora said, “We’ve got to turn the page with Trevor. He’s not gonna be here.”

Clearly, though, the Red Sox are still trying to regroup from the loss of their best all-around player, who had left shoulder surgery on Friday and won’t play again until 2025.

Hamilton has had two tough games in a row at shortstop (Story’s position), and it will be interesting to see if Cora gives more thought to moving Rafaela to short.

“Tomorrow’s a new day,” said Houck. “New sun, new sunrise.”

And, the Red Sox hope, a much-improved defense.