McAdam: Red Sox end road trip - and week - on a down note

In the unlikely event that you needed a reminder of how quickly things can change in the game of baseball, consider the plight of the Red Sox in the past week.

When they won two hard-fought, low-scoring, well-pitched games in New York earlier, the wins seemed to provide the team with the stamp of early-season legitimacy. In the span of just over 24 hours in Queens, the Sox appeared to fix their biggest rotation worry and also demonstrated that they could beat the best starting pitcher in the sport.

Four days later, some of the shine has come off. Dropping three out of four games to the last-place Texas Rangers can do that to a club.

For as disciplined and tough as the Sox had looked at Citi Field, they came off as sloppy and ill-equipped to win close games late at Globe Light Field. Sunday's 5-3 loss was typical in that regard, resulting in the Sox coming home with their first series loss since their infamous sweep by Baltimore in the first three games of the season, and instead of a winning trip, which had seemed all-but-assured after New York, ended up with a .500 (3-3) trek.

If nothing else, Sunday's setback served a humbling reminder to the Sox that, for all the goodwill they've established, are not without their shortcomings and areas that need attention.

A familiar bugaboo raised its head in the early innings and there was the unmistakable impression that it would prove costly later. It did.



Even as they raced to a 2-0 lead by the fourth, the Red Sox were leaving a trail of baserunners in their wake, unable to add on. In the second, third, fourth and fifth, each inning ended with at least Red Sox runner in scoring position; on three occasions, adding to the level of frustration, they left runners on third.

(This same problem plagued them in their two other losses in the series, too, and while it's been mostly the abyss that is the bottom of their order that's been most guilty, Sunday's culprit came in the unlikely person of J.D. Martinez. The RBI leader in MLB, Martinez twice hit into demoralizing double plays).

Sure enough, some of those runs left on the table would have come in handy later, as the Rangers clawed back -- first with a homer off rookie Garrett Whitlock to pull within a run in the seventh, but mostly in the eighth, when the whole thing collapsed thanks to the bullpen.

Adam Ottavino, who had mostly righted himself with just one run allowed over his last six appearances, reverted to a familiar issue when he walked leadoff man Nate Lowe. It represented the fifth time in 11 appearances that Ottavino had allowed the leadoff man to reach base against him, surely not a recipe for success for a high-leverage reliever.

"It's that simple -- a leadoff walk and your margin for error really shrinks,'' Ottavino acknowledged.

Indeed, a stolen base and a single produced the tying run. Another walk left two inherited runners for Matt Barnes, who quickly allowed a sharp single to center to former teammate Brock Holt. A bobble in center by Alex Verdugo allowed the second run to score, but by then, the Sox' fate had already been established.

While it's easy to write off a poor showing from the bullpen as the kind of semi-regular occurrence that befalls even the best teams, the futility at the bottom of the lineup would seem more problematic.

A month is not the smallest of sample sizes, and other than a few hints over the last few days that Hunter Renfroe is slowly beginning to stir, the offensive ineptitude is striking. When the Sox bunch Renfroe, Marwin Gonzalez and the, for now, inept Franchy Cordero (0-for-22, 1-for-32) together at the bottom of the order, they're featuring three consecutive hitters together with sub-.200 batting averages.

It spoke volumes that Cora had Cordero -- listed at 6-3, 230 pounds -- sacrifice in the seventh inning. Then again, when the ninth inning rolled around and Texas closer Ian Kennedy repelled that same trio in just five pitches total, you could fully understand Cora's thinking.

What can be done in the short-term? Assigning Kike Hernandez to center field on a daily basis would be a start, since that means either Renfroe or Cordero can sit while Christian Arroyo mans second base. But Bobby Dalbec isn't any more of a threat than Gonzalez currently and that still leaves the Sox with a feeble grouping at the bottom of their lineup on a daily basis.

Problems arise throughout a season. A .500 trip isn't cause to send up emergency flares.

But after flying high at the end of April, the Sox limped home Sunday night having been shot down in early May. If nothing else, it was a reminder that they're not without faults -- something we all suspected, naturally, but never more so than after losing three of four to a Texas team that is no one's idea of a contender.