This was how it was supposed to work for the Red Sox

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Most understood the deal.

The Red Sox pitching coming into the 2020 season? It was going to be a challenge. No Chris Sale. Then no Eduardo Rodriguez. And even with those two, the starting rotation unknowns didn't exactly elicit a benefit of the doubt. The offense was going to have to be the straw that stirred the milkshake.

But it didn't really work out that way, hence the 9-20 start coming into Tuesday night in Buffalo.

That was until we got a glimpse of what-might-have-been during the Red Sox' 9-7 win over the Blue Jays. (For a complete box score, click here.)

"I can’t understand why it hasn’t happened more," said Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke when talking about his offense's breakout. "It’s hard to figure out the offense sometimes. Like I’ve said before, this year offense is down. I’m looking through the league and I’m looking at some great hitters who aren’t hitting. For whatever reason, the offense is down. I don’t know why. Yes, I thought with our starting pitching, with those guys being down, losing Eddie, losing Chris, I thought we would have to score a lot of runs to win games. You score nine certainly you always figure on winning there. I just thought we would be more consistent in scoring whether it’s three, four, five, six runs, pretty much every night. And that really hasn’t happened that often. I know lately, I like our offense. And probably the last week I think we’ve been doing a good job."

Against the Jays the Red Sox simply pounded their way to a win.

CLEAR 'EM, RAFFY! pic.twitter.com/yJyN0xhtaZ

— Red Sox (@RedSox) August 26, 2020

You had a starter in Kyle Hart who gave up six runs in just 3 1/3 innings. But you also had a lineup that finally managed big hit after big hit, going 5-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Alex Verdugo. Rafael Devers. Xander Bogaerts. Mitch Moreland. Jackie Bradley Jr. All names one would expect would produce, and this time around they did, each coming through with multiple-hit evenings.

It's not as if the Red Sox' offense has been totally inept. They do have the second-best batting average in the big leagues with runners in scoring position and sit with the ninth-most runs. But with this pitching staff, it hasn't been enough.

In games the Red Sox have allowed five or more runs their record stands at just 3-18. First off, that's a lot of games with such an uphill climb.

The Yankees are 4-6. The Rays are 7-10. The Dodgers are 3-7. The Indians are 2-4.

But this is the Red Sox' lot in life. They knew it. They know it. And it's why the smiles were a little bit broader after Matt Barnes got that last strikeout. They knew this was how it was supposed to work.

"It’s definitely been difficult, for sure," Moreland said. "Just the whole process of it. If we need to talk about something as a group, we’ve gotta stay spread out as much as possible and we’ve kind of done a few things here lately of after the game, we get together, stay spread out obviously, but get together in the clubhouse and just talk about all the good things that happened in the game and that’s been a big hit for us. Just kind of get a little bit of a comfortable feel and a baseball feel that we’ve been lacking. That’s been nice. I attribute a little bit of what’s going on right now to that part of it and making it feel like we’re playing in a halfway normal season. Hopefully, we can continue to be able to do that."

'Man, it's definitely been difficult for sure, just the whole process of it.' - Mitch Moreland pic.twitter.com/kpUMVFfGGg

— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) August 26, 2020