When a team is in the middle of a funk -- and it's hard to think of this current stretch for the Red Sox as anything else -- the little things get magnified. Instead of overcoming small mistakes, they tend to become back-breaking. And instead of benefiting from a break here or there, slumping teams become victims instead.
Take the Red Sox offense, or, what's left of it. Limited to two runs or fewer in five of the previous six games, the Red Sox actually hit the ball hard, often, against Toronto Blue Jays ace Jose Berrios.
And what did they get for their efforts? Very little. The first two batters of the night for the Red Sox, hit balls to the warning track -- Kike Hernandez to left and Alex Verdugo to right -- and made solid contact, with the balls measuring at 105 mph and 103 off the bat, respectively. Both, however, were caught.
That sort of bad luck helped establish the tone early for the Red Sox. If something could go wrong for them, it would.
Need more evidence? The hardest hit ball of the night was off the bat of Rafael Devers leading off the seventh inning. Unfortunately for Devers and the Sox, the ball was hit directly at shortstop Bo Bichette, shifted around to the right of second base. Bichette didn't have to move.
More? How about the spectacular catch by Blue Jays center fielder George Springer, who left his feet and in mid-air, snared a hard-hit line drive from Kevin Plawecki for the final out of the night.
Of course, not all of the factors that led to a 6-2 loss to Toronto could be attributed to bad luck. Some of it was simply bad baseball.
There was Christian Arroyo, too eager, swinging at the first pitch with the bases loaded Berrios in a jam, in the second inning, resulting in a 1-2-3 inning-ending, rally-killing double play.
There was yet another misplay at first base by Bobby Dalbec, who couldn't catch a flip from pitcher Matt Strahm in the fateful eighth, two batters before Bichette cranked an opposite-field grand slam. Strahm made a nifty play just to catch up with a drag bunt by Bradley Zimmer and somehow managed to get the ball to Dalbec in time, just beating Zimmer to the bag. Except Dalbec couldn't secure the ball, and instead of having a baserunner at second and two out, the Jays had two on and one out and a big inning in the offing.
It marked the second time in the last three games that Dalbec mishandled a throw in a critical late-inning situation. On Saturday, he couldn't get his footwork down to grab a wide throw from second baseman Trevor Story, and one batter later, Kevin Kiermaier walked off the Sox with a two-run homer.
The mistakes weren't all of the physical nature, either. Acting manager Will Venable had a rough night when it came to making some decisions with his pitching staff.
First, he pulled Nate Eovaldi after seven relatively stress-free innings. The only two runs Eovaldi allowed were on solo homers -- one in the fifth and another in the seventh. But twice, he had five-pitch innings and in five of the seven innings he worked, he faced the minimum number of hitters. After seven innings, he had thrown just 72 pitches.
Surely, Eovaldi was capable of giving the Red Sox at least one more innings. He had twice before easily surpassed the 72 pitches he'd thrown Monday with a season high of 101 two starts ago and 95 in his last start.
Which brings us to the famed ineligible list, of which much was made in recent days. Had Tanner Houck been available, that would have freed up Garrett Whitlock to finish out Monday. Instead, Whitlock has been shifted into the rotation to cover for the absence of Houck. Kutter Crawford was also unavailable.
Initially, Venable went to Matt Strahm, who retired the first hitter, allowed a one-out single, then was victimized by the Dalbec flub at first.
With two on and one out in a 2-2 game in the eighth, Venable went to Tyler Danish, reasoning that the sinkerballer could get a double play to take the Sox out of the inning. Instead, he gave up a sharp single to center to Springer before leaving a sinker over the plate which Bichette drove out of the ballpark for four runs.
Venable said he was saving Hansel Robles to pitch only if the Sox had the lead, but isn't a tie game in the bottom of the eighth high leverage enough? And if Venable had allowed Eovaldi to pitch the eighth, then he might have had Robles left for the bottom of the ninth, with the lead or tied.
Teams generally don't lose because of one isolated incident or play, and Monday was a reminder of that once more.
The Sox were, at times, a walking, talking example of Murphy's Law, with everything that could go wrong indeed going wrong.
Some of it was bad luck. Some of it was poor execution. And some of it was questionable decision-making.
It wasn't much surprise that all of these things added up to another defeat. That's usually how it goes when you've dropped five of six and six of eight.
Just ask the Red Sox.