First things first: the Red Sox, and the Red Sox alone, are responsible for their plight this season.
It's not anyone else's fault but their own that they've now lost five walk-offs in their first 31 games. Blame their bullpen for not holding leads, or their lineup for not building more insurmountable advantages.
That includes their 5-3 setback at the hands of the Atlanta Braves Wednesday night. Had the Sox built on the momentum of the night before, they would have just their second series win of the season, and headed into Thursday's off-day with some honest-to-goodness momentum as they begin a weekend series with the Texas Rangers, a team with just one fewer win than the Sox themselves.
But they didn't. They lost, again, in walk-off fashion. And that's, again, on them, and no one else.
But...
But for a team desperate for a break, any break at all, they instead got dealt a bad hand.
In the sixth inning of a 3-3 game, with the bases loaded, two out and Collin McHugh on the mound for the Braves, Red Sox catcher Kevin Plawecki eventually worked his way out of an 0-and-2 hole until he had the count full. McHugh needed to throw a strike, or else he'd force in a run with a bases-loaded walk.
His pitch was low, several inches below the bottom of the strike zone and Plawecki got ready to toss his bat aside and begin the jog to first. But home plate umpire Adam Beck inexplicably ruled the pitch a strike. End of inning, but beginning of chaos.
Plawecki slammed his batting helmet in frustration and got about five seconds of invective directed at Beck before he was predictably ejected. Seconds later, manager Alex Cora rushed from the dugout, too late to save his player from being run, but in plenty of time to say his peace. Beck gave him 10 or so seconds before Cora, too, was thumbed, his second ejection in the last four games. (That, as much as anything, is a clear measurement of the frustration that is boiling over around the Sox).
Had Beck ruled the pitch a ball, as he should have, the Red Sox would have had the lead, and still would have had the bases loaded. Would a big hit have pried the game open? We'll never know.
What we do know is this: an egregious mistake by an umpire is about the last thing the Red Sox needed. For a team seemingly destined to have every one of its games decided by a run or two, they needed Beck's blown call like they needed one more blown save -- of which they have many.
"Obviously, we didn't agree with the call,'' said Cora in an almost comical bit of understatement. "But we had chances to add on and we had chances to make pitches and we didn't do it. At the end of the day, they put up good at-bats and we didn't do enough.''
That's precisely the stance that Cora should be taking, even if he feels, deep down, that his team was screwed. It doesn't do him, nor his team, any good to wallow in self-pity, or provide his players with any handy excuses.
And yet, there was no small amount of irony in how that one call impacted the outcome. As Cora pointed out, he's been preaching to his players for weeks that they need to be more selective at the plate, that they need to show some discipline and only swing at strikes.
That's what Plawecki was doing in the top of the sixth inning -- ensuring that, with everything on the line, he only swung at a strike. McHugh's pitch -- as seen in replays and on StatCast -- was clearly below the zone. And still, the Sox paid.
"He did his job,'' said Cora of Plawecki. The inference was clear -- if only Beck had done his.
(Smartly, Cora also skirted the issue of whether he was in favor of introducing robot umps to call balls and strikes. "We can talk about that later,'' he said).
If Cora measured his words carefully, Plawecki wasn't as delicate.
"Stinks ... terrible,'' said Plawecki's of Beck's strike call. "We talked about it as a group -- grind out ABs. I thought I put a good one together, down 0-and-2, get it to 3-and-2. Then had a ball called a strike. It cost us a run. I don't want to say it lost us the game, but it cost us a run and changed the trajectory of the game. ... Just a terrible call.''
There was no appeal, of course, no replay challenge upon which the Red Sox could rely. The call stood. Those are the breaks. When it comes to balls and strikes, baseball is as it's been forever -- unlike safe or out calls, or home run boundary calls, you don't get the opportunity to reverse a mistake.
"He'll see that the ball was down (when he looks at the video),'' predicted Plawecki of Beck.
That won't help the Red Sox, of course. And for a team that hasn't done enough to help itself, that will serve as cold comfort, indeed.