The wins aren't consistently coming. The storylines? That's a different matter.
Before the Red Sox's 3-1 loss to the Rays Monday night in St. Petersburg, Fla., ESPN's Buster Olney went on the Rich, Ken, and Ted Johnson Show on WEEI to offer the latest revelation when it comes to how this team is currently doing business.
"Today I talked to someone with another team who told me that it’s to the degree that Red Sox ownership has gotten involved … one of the Red Sox owners is actually calling around and trying to grease the skids to add a right-handed bat," Olney said. (He clarified on his Tuesday podcast that the owner in question was not Theo Epstein.)
Why was this telling?
The approach shows that the Red Sox are passing the shovels around all over the place, trying to get out of the kind of June mess that offseason approaches are meant to avoid. It is the reminder offered by Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes when appearing on the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast, explaining that Los Angeles's aggressiveness during Hot Stove season is so that when this time of year rolls around, you aren't needing ot pay "3X" what it might cost in January.
Spoiler: The Red Sox failed to learn that lesson, and now they are paying the price.
There was the April desperation of firing the manager and half the coaching staff, the two-plus-month realization that the skill set that comes with hitting the ball over the fence at Fenway Park is a must for any Red Sox team, and, now, trying to find solutions through owner phone calls and overpaying at a most imperfect time.
No Roman Anthony has hurt. And maybe the return of Romy Gonzalez might add a boost. But there is likely a reason you are getting the kind of messaging put forth by Olney. The Red Sox have come to the realization that all those projections and models that greased the skids for Cora and his crew exiting the equation were probably flawed.
This has become a definition-of-insanity situation, as exemplified by this latest loss.
The Red Sox have now scored two or fewer runs 27 times, including four times already in June.
As soon as there are signs, they quickly disappear. Remember all that optimism surfaced by the production supplied by Jarren Duran, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Mickey Gasper heading into this month? That trio is a combined 8-for-63 in June (.127). They aren't the only ones who have ridden this Red Sox offensive roller coaster. With the exception of Willson Contreras, it has been a constant theme.
This is where finding some semblance of certainty would have seemed like a good idea.
Having a presence in the lineup not only goes a long way in getting runners to cross home plate, but it usually makes everybody around them a little bit better. When Yandy Diaz strode to the plate with a runner on third base in the eighth inning and the Rays still clinging to a one-run lead, there was a pretty high sense of certainty that something good was going to happen.
That "something good is going to happen" feeling hasn't really taken root with the Red Sox this season.
They can point to Alex Bregman's down year with the Cubs as their I-told-you-so, but that wouldn't be a good idea. If the third baseman were made available right now, he would still be a really good solution to this problem. Only two players in baseball have pulled the ball more than Bregman, who has hit it to the left side 55 times at Wrigley Field. Only eight of those pull-side pieces of contact have gone for base hits. The Red Sox's righties? After Willson Contreras 43 balls pulled at his home park, next in line is Caleb Durbin at 31.
But Bregman isn't available, and neither are many potential players who could patch this up.
The timing of the revelation that the Red Sox's ownership group might be getting involved should offer a reminder of what is possible. It was at the owners' meeting in New York a year ago that the foundation for the Rafael Devers trade was created. It's likely that John Henry and Co. wanted to use this week's setting to potentially go down another unforeseen road.
This potential path, however, is already bumpier than any Red Sox team has experienced in some time. Ten games under .500. Four and a half games back of a Wild Card spot. The Rays, Rangers, Blue Jays, and Mariners all lined up for the next two weeks. The cliff is coming, and the wheel is getting tougher to turn.
