Marcelo Bielsa, who exited as head coach of the Uruguayan national team after the side bowed out of the World Cup in the group stage, gave a 100-minute press conference on Tuesday in which he maintained that his message never resonated with the team.

Uruguay opened play in Group H with a 1-1 draw against Saudi Arabia, then squandered a second-half lead in a 2-2 draw against Cape Verde. Needing a positive result against powerhouse Spain in the group finale to advance, Uruguay lost 1-0 on a goalkeeping error.

Speaking Tuesday in Montevideo of his tenure on the job, which began in May 2023, Bielsa said, “What I have absolute certainty of is that nobody cares what I know. I know when someone cares what I know. Nothing I tried to transmit was important, at any level. That was never important from my point of view. I don’t see anything bad in it — other people aren’t interested in learning what I know. Case closed.”

Bielsa added, “My responsibility for what happened is very clear. I cannot justify the position we finished in. In short, my management of the players I had was insufficient. We did our best, both my colleagues and I, and the players, and it wasn’t enough. I am convinced that if I had chosen a different path, we wouldn’t have changed the results we obtained.”

Despite his assessment of how his approach was received, Bielsa still believes his side deserved better results.

“There’s not a serious, thoughtful, meditated and explained analysis which doesn’t see us winning against Saudi Arabia, which doesn’t see us winning against Cape Verde and which doesn’t see us drawing with Spain,” he said, adding, “We were sufficiently united as to run 20% more than Saudi Arabia, 30% more than Cape Verde and 25% more than Spain.”

Bielsa also backed goalie Fernando Muslera, who asked to exit the Spain match at halftime after his 42nd-minute mistake led to a goal. The change was made, but Uruguay failed to rally.

According to Bielsa, Muslera was sick the day before the match.

“It’s never happened to me that a player asked to be replaced because of the effect of errors he committed on his spirit,” Bielsa said. “Muslera told me he was so stricken by the error he committed that he preferred to stop playing because the group’s possibilities were intact and he wasn’t in the best condition to face up to that second half, when we had everything to achieve.”

–Field Level Media

Cade Cavalli allowed one hit and struck out a career-high 13 batters in seven innings as the visiting Washington Nationals defeated the Boston Red Sox 8-1 on Tuesday.

The only run Boston scored against Cavalli (5-4) was unearned. He didn’t issue a walk in his 100-pitch outing.

CJ Abrams hit his 18th home run of the season as Washington won for the third time in four games and leveled the three-game series at one victory apiece. James Wood finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

Boston managed just four hits as its five-game winning streak ended.

There were fireworks in the fourth after Cavalli struck out Willson Contreras looking for the second out of the inning. Cavalli said something following the at-bat that Contreras took exception to, and Contreras had to be restrained as both benches emptied.

Contreras, who threw his batting helmet toward Cavalli during the melee, was ejected. Boston outfielder Nate Eaton and Washington pitcher Miles Mikolas, neither of whom was playing in the game, and Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy were also tossed out.

Contreras hit a three-run homer against Mikolas during Boston’s 6-3 victory on Monday. He later was ejected from that game when he tapped his helmet as if he were asking for an ABS challenge after being called out on a check swing.

Boston left-hander Connelly Early left the Tuesday game with what the Red Sox called left elbow tightness after throwing 48 pitches in four scoreless innings. Greg Weissert (0-2) allowed two runs in 1 2/3 innings of relief.

Washington broke a 1-1 tie by scoring three runs in the seventh. Jose Tena singled off Weissert, who walked Nasim Nunez with one out. Justin Slaten took over on the mound, and Keibert Ruiz drove in the go-ahead run with an infield single.

Later in the inning, Luis Garcia Jr. hit a two-run double to center.

Abrams went deep leading off the eighth to make it 5-1. Ruiz added a two-run double later in the inning, and Ruiz scored when James Wood doubled, increasing the gap to 8-1.

The Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the first. Anthony Seigler doubled, took third on a groundout and scored on a two-out throwing error by Washington third baseman Curtis Mead.

The Nationals tied the game in the fifth when Daylen Lile singled, Ruiz walked and Wood hit an RBI single to right.

–Field Level Media

Junior Caminero homered in his fifth consecutive game, a three-run shot to highlight Tampa Bay’s six-run third inning, and the Rays won their sixth straight game, beating the host Kansas City Royals 10-4 on Tuesday night.

Caminero, who has clubbed eight of his 23 home runs in the last seven games, joins Ronald Acuna Jr. (2018), Brian McCann (2006) and Jack Clark (1978) as the only four players aged 22 or younger since 1900 to homer in five straight contests.

Ryan Vilade also homered and Griffin Jax (4-5) allowed three runs and struck out five over six innings to win his third straight start for the Rays.

Bobby Witt Jr. clubbed a two-run homer and an eighth-inning solo shot as part of a three-hit night for the Royals, who have lost five of six.

Meanwhile, the six earned runs surrendered by Noah Cameron (4-6) were a season high, along with nine hits and three of Kansas City’s 11 walks allowed, in 3 2/3 innings.

The Royals opened the scoring when Carter Jensen extended his hitting streak to 20 games by sending the first pitch in the bottom of the first into the right-center field fountains.

Tampa Bay, though, broke out in the third, when the first eight batters reached against Cameron.

Nick Fortes opened by reaching second on a bunt single coupled with third baseman Nick Loftin’s throwing error. Yandy Diaz then walked, and Jonathan Aranda (two hits) dropped a run-scoring single to center.

Caminero, who also singled on the night, then cleared the left-field wall with his fifth homer against the Royals this season for a 4-0 Rays lead. Vilade followed with a homer to nearly the same spot and Ben Williamson later recorded an RBI single.

The Royals made it 6-3 in the bottom of the third when Isaac Collins doubled and scored on Witt’s drive into the left-field seats.

Williamson and Taylor Wells drew back-to-back walks in the fifth, advanced via catcher Jensen’s passed ball and both scored on Fortes’ single to left.

In the sixth, Kansas City’s Eric Cerantola walked six batters, allowing one run on a wild pitch with the bags full and another on a bases-loaded walk to Walls.

–Field Level Media