Red Sox GM Cherington sees good effort, poor play

ATLANTA (AP) Boston Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said Monday the team's 10-game losing streak is tough to take even as he sees good effort from his club.

Cherington accompanied the defending World Series champions to Atlanta for the start of a two-game series Monday. He said he planned to make the trip even before the skid.

''It's hard for all of us, obviously,'' Cherington said. ''Hard for all of the guys in there. Hard for the staff, hard for us. It's not what we're used to.''

The 10-game losing streak is the longest for a defending World Series champion since the 1998 Marlins had two 11-game skids. It is Boston's longest drought since an 11-game slide in 1994.

Cherington said the Red Sox have been competitive and have played a lot of close games, but he said that's not enough.

''There's competing going on. There's effort,'' he said. ''We're just not doing well enough in any aspect of the game right now. We're just not excelling in any aspect and so we have to find ways to improve across the board. And some of that's going to happen just naturally with the guys that we have here.''

If the struggles continue, Cherington said the time will come to seek help from outside the organization.

''We're deep enough into the season certainly where, even putting the losing streak aside, we can see where the team's limitations are and see the areas that perhaps can get better,'' he said.

''There's two ways to do that. The first is to help the players that are here get better and that effort goes on every day. And we believe some of that will happen. And at some point if production's not there you have to think about changes.''

Cherington said it's too early to seek help through a trade because other teams are not at that point.

Manager John Farrell refused to pinpoint the struggles to any area.

''We will win and we will lose as a group,'' Farrell said. ''It's not any one player, it's across the board.''

Farrell said he hasn't seen the losing streak reflected in the team's effort.

''It would be different if we felt like the effort or the competitiveness wasn't there and yet we all see it, we all see that competitive at-bats are being had,'' Farrell said. ''Guys are going about their work in a similar fashion whether we are 10-0 in this stretch or 0-10.''