After another Red Sox loss, Alex Cora already looks and sounds exasperated

And in the fifth game of the 2026 season, the Red Sox suffered another ugly loss and Alex Cora looks and sounds ... well ... exasperated.

Fasten your seat belts, folks. Place your tray tables up and your seat in the upright position.

So where does this go from here? Good question. As we all know, the 162-game marathon that is the baseball season can contain many critical crossroads, and the 2026 Red Sox have already reached one ... after just five games. That's right, five. Boston has made only one trip through the entire starting rotation and the Boston recipe for 2026 already looks something like this: one part Garrett Crochet, four parts ineptitude.

Since defeating the Cincinnati Reds on Opening Day, the Sox have lost four straight while being outscored 26-10 by Cincinnati and Houston, dropping the last two games by a combined score of 17-3. During the entirety of the four-game nosedive, the Sox have batted .172 with a .599 OPS and 47 strikeouts (an average of 11.75 per game) while scoring a mere 2.5 runs per contest. Meanwhile, they have posted a 6.03 and allowed nine home runs. They have also committed four errors.

If you're looking for a single play that helps illustrate the issues with Sox, it probably looks something like this:

Cora's description of the above?

"Just a bad baseball play," said the manager.

Truth be told, we'd love to show you what Cora looked like after the game because he looked and sounded like a soda bottle that someone placed in a paint-can shaker: pressurized. And can you blame him? After politely responding to a couple of questions by NESN reporter Jahmai Webster, Cora's body language during his exchanges with members of the otherwise ink-stained traveling party suggested he's a man who's greatest challenge right now is restraining himself.

For example, after the clown show that was the above play, most everyone in the ballpark - and we mean everyone - seemed oblivious to the fact that Cam Smith of the Astros somehow walked to first base after striking out on three pitches. That's right ... Smith swung and missed at three consecutive pitches, though the sequence that was interrupted after the second strike by the stoogery of the play posted above. When play resumed, Smith swung and missed at a third pitch, but remained at the plate and subsequently drew a walk.

It - and Cora's postgame - looked like this:

"To be honest with you," said Cora while shaking his head, "I don't even know what to say about that."

WIth good reason, of course - because it's inexplicable.

Unless, of course, you come to the conclusion that the Red Sox were so mentally unglued after chucking the ball all over the place that they were spinning while most everyone else was laughing.

The good news - we think?

Garrett Crochet pitches again today, which means the Sox might have a chance.