Cherington confident underachieving Red Sox will improve

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OAKLAND -- General manager Ben Cherington, speaking with reporters for the first time since announcing the firing of pitching coach Juan Nieves last week, said Monday he's confident the underachieving Red Sox will improve.

"There's a lot of talent here,'' said Cherington as the Red Sox began a series with the A's. "I'm confident we'll play better...We just have to play a smart, simple game and execute when we have the opportunity to execute. We have the guys who can do that; we just have to it more consistently.''

In the last two weeks, beyond the issues with the starting rotation, the Red Sox have also struggled with their offensive game, often failing to produce with runners in scoring position.

Cherington thinks it's just a matter of time before the offense gets into gear.

"We haven't clicked offensively yet as a team,'' Cherington said. "I still think we will. I think we have too many good players for the offense not to click as a group. So that will happen.

"I think the offense is going to be fine. On an individual basis, they need to settle in and have a run of at-bats and feel better about themselves. And as a group, it's just about doing what they can do, trusting the guy behind them and letting that team offensive mindset take over. I think we did a good job of that (Sunday); earlier in the season, certainly, we were doing a good job of that facing some really good starting pitching. We had good games and consistent at-bats. We just have to get bat to that.''

As for the beleaguered starting rotation, Cherington believes that, too, will get better.

"We're judged by the results so 31 games in, our record isn't what we want it to be,'' said Cherington. "But it's 31 games. We've got a lot of season to play good baseball and win more games. I'm confident we will.

I believe we have a lot of the solutions here. We'll continue to try to find any way to get better, certainly.

"I believe we'll pitch better. I believe, again, we have a lot of the solutions here, already. We're trying to create some stability around that group. We lost two catchers. That's a change that affects pitching, to some degree and we're trying to create some stability around that. I want to see this group with a chance to perform with some stability around it. We believe they'll perform well.''

Cherington said it's still early on the baseball calendar to make any significant deals.

"Not a lot of teams are in that (trade) mode,'' said Cherington, "but they wouldn't normally be this time of year anyway. We're not really there yet. There's a little bit of conversation, but there's not a lot yet. The kind of trades that get made early in the season are ones where a team might be trying to find a spot for someone or you're trying to move some pieces around.

"But there aren't a lot of team-altering trades being discussed this early. We probably need a little bit of time for that.''

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