McAdam: David Price only part of the problem in Game 2 loss

The easy and obvious thing to do is to hang this one on David Price.

After all, it was Price who put the Red Sox behind 1-0 two batters into the game. It was he who threw another gopher ball to open the second. And it was he who forced the Red Sox bullpen to provide 7.1 innings, using up precious bullets in a short series.

And Price deserves a big heaping slice of the blame pie, punting away any momentum the Red Sox had earned in Game 1 and turning this series, very quickly, into a best-of-three with two of those games in New York.

The aim here isn't to let Price off the hook. When the Red Sox needed him to step on the Yankees' throats, he instead pulled a pratfall on the mound and was hounded into the dugout by a justifiably angry 39,151 at Fenway.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's also recognize that the predicament the Red Sox find themselves in is not just Price's doing.

When Price left, the Red Sox trailed 3-0 in the top of the second. That's hardly insurmountable for a team which led the majors in virtually every offensive category during the regular season and boasted not one but two legitimate MVP candidates among its first three hitters in Saturday's lineup.

But the normally explosive offense made more a popgun attack. The team aided and abetted New York starter Masahiro Tanaka by chasing pitches below (sinkers) and out of (sliders) the strike zone. Patience was hardly a virtue, as the Sox went down in order three times in the first six innings.

And unless you count the solo homer by Xander Bogaerts in the fourth, the Red Sox didn't have another baserunner in scoring position until the seventh. Mookie Betts, their best player and offensive catalyst, hit the ball hard once in his four trips to the plate and didn't reach base. J.D. Martinez, who energized the ballpark with his first-inning launch into the Monster Seats in Game 1, was 1-for-4 with a single.

In the postseason, your best players have to, well, be your best players. Betts and Martinez fit the bill Friday, but not Saturday night.

They weren't alone in coming up short. When you're 5-for-31 (.161) as a lineup, you're not going to win many games. And if you backtrack to Game 1, the offense has scored all of two runs in its last 14 innings.

During the season, that sort of offensive skid would barely merit notice; in October, and especially in a best-of-five series, it can result in your elimination.

The offense wasn't the only culprit.

The infield defense was sloppy. Eduardo Nunez, in the lineup over Rafael Devers nominally because he's more dependable on routine plays, upended that narrative when he made a fine, diving stop on a ball hit to his left, only to airmail the throw to first, enabling Aaron Judge to take second on a two-base error.

Two innings later, Nunez seemed to hesitate as he fielded a grounder with runners on first and second, and when he finally fired to second, again threw high, forcing second baseman Ian Kinsler to leap into the air. Only on a replay challenge did the Red Sox get the out call.

Then again, at least Nunez's flubs were errors of commission. The same couldn't be said of Eduardo Rodriguez.

In the seventh, Judge -- there's that name again -- hit a slow roller to the right of the mound. After making a token effort to field the ball himself, Nunez remained glued to the mound as Mitch Moreland ranged over and fielded the ball ... only to discover that he had no one covering the bag to take the throw.

"Yeah, I'm going to talk to him about that,'' said Alex Cora. "It seemed like he went for the ball and then he slowed down. I haven't talked to him about that play.''

Said Rodriguez: "I just slipped on the mound and when I realized he was beating me already, I just let him get to the base.''

Beyond the bad optics, there was this: three batters later, Rodriguez yielded a three-run shot by Gary Sanchez, which turned a 3-1 game into a 6-1 laugher. If Rodriguez had hustled over and recorded the inning's first out, who knows how the rest of the inning -- indeed, the game itself -- might have unfolded from there?

This much is clear: as the Red Sox left for New York, they could look back at a Game 2 loss and know that their starting pitcher was only partly responsible.