McAdam: One moment in Friday's loss encapsulated what's wrong with Red Sox

In the fifth inning Friday night, New York Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres was on first base with two outs and Michael Tauchman was at the plate.

Ryan Brasier, already the third Red Sox pitcher of the night, was strangely occupied with throwing over to keep Torres close to the bag. In three seasons in the big leagues, Torres has stolen just 11 bases, yet Brasier continued to throw over to first.

Finally, with the count full, first baseman Mitch Moreland stepped back behind the runner to help guard the line against the lefthanded-hitting Tauchman. After all, with two outs and the count full, Torres would be off with the pitch anyway. Moreland signaled his intention to Brasier to play off the bag and behind the runner.

And yet, as he prepared to make the important pitch to Tauchman, Brasier suddenly whirled with the intention of again throwing to first. As he pivoted, however, he spotted Moreland well behind Torres and froze. He was correctly called for a balk, moving Torres 90 feet and into scoring position.

Finally, turning his attention back to Tauchman, Brasier then allowed an opposite-field single to left, allowing Torres to score. Had Torres not been balked to second, he would have been forced to stop at third -- at best.

But the bad news was far from over. Next, with Tauchman aboard, Brasier then hung a pitch to Gary Sanchez who blasted in 457 feet, well beyond the bullpen in left center.

In the span of just a handful of pitches, the Red Sox went from trailing the Yankees 2-1 to losing 5-1, en route to yet another blowout loss, 10-3.

It was hard not to think that the entire game has turned on the lapse of focus on the part of Brasier.

"Mitch told him he was behind him and Ryan forgot,'' said Ron Roenicke. "It's obviously concerning. You don't like the mental mistakes. You don't like getting beat, but we don't want to give it to teams. Every time they do, they capitalize on it. If we make an error, then all of a sudden they hit a homer. Or, we're just giving teams opportunities to score runs.

"We'll try to focus more but I don't that necessarily think that's the issue, the focus. I don't know. It's just things are not going well.''

Indeed, they are not. The losing streak has reached five now, and in every one of those losses, the opponent has scored at least eight runs. Much of that is due to a pitching staff that is obviously not major league caliber.

But there have been other distressing signs in the last week. On Thursday, the Sox made four errors, three by third baseman Rafael Devers. None required any extraordinary effort. Instead, they were all on routine throws.

So yes, strictly speaking, they were physical errors. But these weren't hard-hit balls taking bad hops or clanging off a glove. These were, in essence, lazy bits of execution.

Ironically, hours before Brasier's mental undoing, Roenicke had told reporters in his pre-game media availability that he was happy with the team's preparation and commitment, and wasn't worried about a losing culture developing around the team.

"It's not at the point now where I really need to address it,'' he said, "because I still see how the guys are. They're not happy with us losing. I still see the effort level. I still see how they prepare going into every single game we play. And the attitude -- what they talk about before the game, and it's still been good.

"They all realize what's going on. They realize it's still important to go out and play hard and prepare every day. And they've done that. So at this point in time, I don't think that I need to address that part. I'm just hoping things turn around quickly and hopefully I won't have to have that conversation.''

No one has been guilty of a lack of effort. The Sox have run out ground balls and, though outclassed, have shown a willingness to play hard.

But the mental lapses have begun to pile up. Earlier this week, Michael Chavis chose to throw home on a play where he had no chance of recording an out. Some baserunning blunders have popped up, with the Sox running into outs they can ill afford.

And that's the issue here. The Sox are playing with a talent deficit, especially on the mound. The last thing they can afford is to make mental errors that further magnify that gap.

Yet there they were, in the middle of a one-run game, inviting trouble by giving the Yankees additional chances, and inviting questions about focus -- or lack thereof -- on the field.