The Red Sox woke up Wednesday morning with 11 losses, tied with the Orioles and Rangers for most in the American League. Of the 11, which one was the worst? That’s easy.
Tuesday night in Toronto.
“That was a rough one,” Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts told MLB.com after his team’s 6-5 loss to the Blue Jays. “Especially because we know how we’ve started the season. That one did sting a lot.”
The impetus for the agony wasn't difficult to decipher, with Toronto scoring three runs - including a two-out, two-run homer from George Springer - in the ninth inning to send the game into extra innings. Once in the added frames, only one team could take advantage of the ghost runner at second, and it wasn't the Red Sox.
That would be seven losses in their last nine games, and, even more unsettling, continued uneasiness when it came to understanding who these Red Sox actually are.
At this point, the blueprint has been burned.
The most encouraging aspect of the evening, not even close, was the one piece of the puzzle that did fit as expected. The go-to guys - Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, Alex Verdugo and Trevor Story - came through to offer the key hits in what a rare clouds-parting, four-run eighth inning.
It was yet again a reminder of one of the few constants on this club thus far, Bogaerts, who now has six three-hit games, the most in Major League Baseball.
Unfortunately for the Red Sox, their shortstop is the outlier.
The supposed strength of the team coming out of spring training, its offense, has been remarkably thin. The No. 6 in the order has the worst OPS in baseball (.386). The No. 7 position is second-to-last (.375). No. 8? Dead last at .445. And the ninth-position sits with a .498 OPS, which is sixth-worst in MLB.
That's four spots. Even if J.D. Martinez, Devers and Verdugo has OPS' of .800 or better, that is a tough reality to overcome.
Then there is how the pitching plan has unfolded.
The starters simply aren't giving them enough innings, and the relievers seem to be caught up in tidal wave of inconsistency (partly due to having to be relied on for so many of those make-or-break frames).
In this case, the trickle-down effect of not having Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford due to their vaccination status didn't help. It basically took the Red Sox most valuable reliever - Garrett Whitlock - out of the equation until his start Thursday, a pain-point that was highlighted in the last three losses.
The Red Sox relievers have thrown the seventh-most innings of any bullpen in the majors, also tossing the sixth-most pitches. Go back to 2018 and that group of Red Sox relievers had thrown 68 innings through 18 games. Same for 2021. And in that world championship season of four years ago, the starters went at least six innings 10 times in their first 18 chances. This time around? Once.
We hear about "pockets" for the pitching staff, and "doing damage" early in the count when it comes to the offense. Little of it is lining up.
It is still relatively early, and the Red Sox are still finding their way. It's just that nobody could have imagined they would have gotten this lost.
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