McAdam: Chris Sale and Mookie Betts are struggling and so, not coincidentally, are the Red Sox

The stage seemed set.

On their first visit of the season to New York, the Red Sox appeared to have things going in their favor.

The Yankees' Injured List, getting longer by the hour, was the lengthiest it's been, with their lineup featuring no fewer than five players who wouldn't have started had the team been healthier.

On the mound for the Yanks was James Paxton, whose last start in Houston resulted in him being shelled by the Astros for five runs on eight hits in just four innings, leaving Paxton to wonder if the Astros had been stealing signs.

And for good measure, the Red Sox had recalled catcher Sandy Leon, who in the last two seasons, for all his offensive shortcomings, had served as a security blanket of sorts for ace Chris Sale. Surely, Leon's arrival would coincide with a big turnaround for Sale and provide the Sox with a jumpstart as their five-game road trip began.

But none of that mattered once the game began. Returning to Yankee Stadium, where their postseason got underway with a four-game dismissal of the Yanks in the ALDS last October, the Red Sox stubbed their collective toe again with a flat, uninspired 8-0 drubbing by New York.

Sale was marginally better in some respects, showing improved velocity and a sharper slider. But he still made a number of misfires with his location, resulting in the Yankees scoring twice in the third and three more times in the fourth. After a better fifth, Sale was done, having thrown 93 pitches while dropping to 0-4. (For comparison's sake, Sale didn't lose his fourth decision last year until June 8.

To his credit, Sale again wore the loss and offered no excuses, leading the league in accountability if nothing else.

"I just flat-out stink right now,'' he said. "I just know I have to pitch better. I don't care how I feel or what it looks like. I just need to start putting up zeroes. ... This is flat-out embarrassing for my family, for my team, for our fans. This is about as bad as it gets.''

But if Sale was mistake-prone, the offense was simply inept.

Paxton fixed something because he was delivering his fastball 98-99 mph from the beginning and the Red Sox seemed oblivious to the fact that they were consistently falling behind in the count, and thus putting themselves at an even bigger disadvantage.

They hinted at a scoring chance in the fourth after a leadoff walk to Mookie Betts and an opposite-field double by Xander Bogaerts, which, incidentally, missed going out by no more than two inches in a moment that seemed to symbolize the first three weeks of the 2019 Red Sox season.

Still, second-and-third, no out represented a golden opportunity for the Sox, especially with their 3-4-5 hitters coming up. But both J.D. Martinez and Steve Pearce lofted fly balls to shallow right, too shallow to send Betts from third, and then Mitch Moreland, for the second time in three at-bats against Paxton, was overmatched by the left, going down swinging -- as he did in the second and as he would again in the seventh.

The inning was another example of the poor situational hitting that has plagued the team repeatedly in the first 18 games. They're hitting just .262 in such instances, including 0-for-10 in the last two games alone and 1-for-17 in the last three.

Chief among the offensive culprits has been Betts, who seems to alternate between passive and impatient from at-bat to at-bat. It may be unfair to place such a burden of expectation on one player, but then, this is the reigning AL MVP we're talking about.

Bogaerts and Martinez have hit, and until recently, so did Moreland, who was nearly singlehandedly responsible for the first four wins of the season.

But with nothing coming from the bottom third of the order -- a black hole that isn't likely to get better anytime soon with the arrival of the light-hitting Leon -- and little coming from Steve Pearce, Eduardo Nunez or Dustin Pedroia -- it's incumbent upon Betts to carry the team, at least occasionally.

Instead, Betts seems caught in between -- at times eager to hammer the first pitch he sees, whether it's a good pitch to swing at or not. Other times, Betts seems tentative, unsure of himself. His .212 average and .715 OPS speak volumes, as he's had little impact from either the top spot or No. 2 in the order.

In hockey -- and other sports, I suppose -- there's a saying about how your best players have to be your best players, and that in a nutshell, could be a reasonable explanation -- to the extent that any one reason exists -- for the Red Sox' horrendous start.

Their best hitter is failing them, and so, too, is their best pitcher.

Is it any wonder they are where they are?