Alex Cora, Craig Breslow should share blame for Red Sox struggles in WC contention

When the trade deadline rolls around, you usually see a few things happen. The powerhouse teams will buy, adding talent to their roster, before skyrocketing up the standings with their new talent. The struggling teams will sell, turning their bad seasons even worse after losing the best players they had.

Somehow the Boston Red Sox were able to buy at the deadline, but not being aggressive enough, before proceeding to struggle through the month of August.

Boston is 5-6 in the month of August, and they have fallen behind the Twins and the Royals in the AL Wild Card race. They have seen the bullpen struggle and there are plenty of places to point the finger of blame right now.

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Cora, Breslow to blame for recent Boston Red Sox struggles

Obviously, the first place that anybody will want to point the finger when a team loses the game is on the players. But sometimes, it's much deeper than that.

With the Red Sox, the blame can be placed on Craig Breslow and Alex Cora just as much, if not more, than it is placed on the players.

Breslow had the opportunity to be aggressive and pursue a ton of talent at the deadline, but he really didn't make the blockbuster moves that Red Sox fans wanted. If you want a crash course into how to approach a deadline as an aggressive buyer, look at the way the Padres did it this year. Even the Dodgers could be seen as somebody to learn from. Instead, Breslow let players like Jack Flaherty end up with other teams rather than paying up for their services.

At least Breslow didn't start selling like some speculated he could have done.

With Cora, the blame can be placed on his mismanagement of the bullpen. On Wednesday night, we saw an example of just that as the Red Sox manager used arguably the best available reliever, Chris Martin, for one batter and four pitches before making way for Josh Winckowski, who promptly gave up a three-run home run to tie the game -- an eventual loss -- with one out left to get.

There will always be some blame for the manager when a team doesn't perform as they're expected to. With the season on the line, the Red Sox are losing games that they should be winning, and it could cost them a postseason berth if they aren't careful.

Hopefully, Boston can see the debuts of top prospects Marcelo Mayer, Kyle Teel and Roman Anthony over the next few weeks. These three could all be good enough to get a September call-up this year.