For the Boston Red Sox, home is not where the heart is.
The Red Sox continued to struggle at Fenway Park on Tuesday, losing 4-2 to the Baltimore Orioles. The result extended a perplexing pattern for a team that's been fantastic away from Boston yet can't seem to put it together in front of its home fans.
Members of the club seem at a loss to explain why the issue is happening, though infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa hinted that off-field distractions may be affecting the squad in Beantown.
"I just feel like on the road, we're (a) very close-knit team," Kiner-Falefa, who went 0-for-3 in Tuesday's loss, said postgame, according to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. "We've come home, and there are just a lot of people. ... It's different. It's just a different vibe at home. And we got to figure out a way to make it small like how it is on the road.
"Just feel like at home, we see a lot of people that we don't know or, you know, I just don't know that around this area. And (when) we're on the road, it's just a close-knit group. And we were becoming a really close team. And, yeah, we got to find a way to bring that back home."
Tuesday's loss dropped the Red Sox to a league-worst 9-20 at home. It's the franchise's worst home record to open a season since the 1932 Red Sox - a team that lost 111 games - started 7-22 at Fenway, according to Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Herald. Offensively at home, Boston ranks last in homers (17) and 27th in OPS (.654).
By contrast, the Red Sox are 16-14 with a plus-19 run differential on the road. The team came into this homestand having taken two of three from the Guardians in Cleveland and won six of its last nine road contests.
Interim manager Chad Tracy struggled to find an explanation for his club's home-road discrepancy.
"It is what it is at this point," Tracy said, according to MassLive's Sean McAdam. "Our goal is just to go out and play baseball, and it will turn eventually. But yeah, it's obvious, we've played so well on the road (16-14), but it's been a struggle here as far as wins and losses are concerned."
The disastrous home record has left the Red Sox sitting last in the AL East, 11.5 games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays and four games out of a playoff spot. All the team can seemingly do at this point is grind through it and see if they can get that 10th home victory in the near future.
"It's kind of back down the same rabbit hole," Kiner-Falefa said, per McAdam. "It's the same story over and over again. Sick of it, and I think everybody in here is sick of it. We just have to find a way to be better."
