The Sox trailed 14-1 after three innings after Tanner Houck submitted the worst start in team history, in part because of poor defense behind him.

Manager Alex Cora, who has lasted seven seasons in Boston thanks in part to an even temperament, did not filter his words this time.

“It seems like there was a team that was prepared for the other one [and] the other one wasn’t prepared for them,” he said. “And that goes from top all the way to the bottom.

“That wasn’t a good night for us and I’ll take the blame because it seemed like our team wasn’t ready to go.”

The Sox are 8-10 and have lost six of their last eight games.

“Defense has been bad; the offense has been bad. We’ve been inconsistent pitching-wise,” Cora said. “Those are the three pillars of baseball and we haven’t been good.”

Houck, an All-Star last season allowed a shocking 12 runs, 11 earned, over 2 1/3 innings. He struck out only one of the 20 batters he faced.

Since 1901, no Sox pitcher had allowed as many as 11 earned runs in as few as 2 1/3 innings. The only one close was Doug Bird, who surrendered 11 earned runs over 2 2/3 innings against the White Sox on May 24, 1983.

Houck’s first pitch of the game was hit 415 feet to left center field by Yandy Diaz at an exit velocity of 107.6 m.p.h. It was sign of what was to come.

“Not good. Come back tomorrow and figure it out,” Houck said.

He then repeated different versions of the same answer to six other questions.

Houck had a poor spring training, allowing 17 earned runs on 29 hits over 13 2/3 innings. He dismissed it as a product of working on certain pitches.

But Houck gave up seven earned runs on 12 hits and five walks over 9 2/3 innings in his first two starts of the regular season before pitching well against Toronto last week.

Then came Monday’s debacle.

The game was essentially lost in the first two innings when Houck allowed five runs.

Tampa Bay rookie Kameron Misner, one of Houck’s teammates at the University of Missouri in 2017, had a two-run homer in the second inning. Brandon Lowe added a two-run single.

The third inning was a nightmare. The Rays sent 14 batters to the plate. Ten reached safely and nine scored. Among the eight hits were two-run doubles by Jonathan Aranda and Christopher Morel.

Alex Bregman, whose defense at third base has been surprisingly suspect, booted what could have been a double play ball. A flood of hits followed.

Other plays weren’t made because fielders were out position or slow to react.

“Not playing our brand of baseball. It’s been real sloppy on both sides,” shortstop Trevor Story said. “It’s hard to win when you’re not playing well on defense and we’re not stringing at-bats together.”

Story said, correctly, that the season is just beginning. But if the Sox don’t show more of a desire to win, that doesn’t matter.

“We’ve got to find a way to compete,” Story said. “Just make it about that. Just compete. That’s both offensively and defensively.

He doesn’t see it as Cora’s fault.

“We’re the ones out there playing the game,” Story said. “There’s a certain pride that comes when you wear this jersey. You’ve got to put it up and we haven’t been doing that.”

Houck (0-2) was replaced after 61 pitches by Michael Fulmer, who allowed three more runs.

As Tampa Bay pounded away, righthander Shane Baz (2-0) overmatched the Sox hitters.

He went six innings and allowed one run on two hits and struck out 11 without a walk. The only run he allowed was a home run by rookie Kristian Campbell in the third inning.

“We have to play better, we know that,” Cora said. “I said from Day 1, for us to be where we want to be, we have to be consistent with the things that we do.

“Honestly we’ve been consistently bad the last 10 days.”

Peter Abraham can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @PeteAbe.