The Red Sox lost 4-3 to the Oakland A's Thursday afternoon, failing to complete a sweep and a series sweep while watching their three-game winning streak come to a screeching halt.
Even against the team with the worst record in the American League, it happens. Even against a team the Sox had previously outscored 36-6, losses are going to come.
But it was how the Red Sox lost that was so maddening. Fact is, the Red Sox shouldn't have lost -- not because the A's are bad -- though they surely are -- but because the Red Sox split their time Thursday handing the visitors runs while also failing to take advantage of one offensive opportunity after another.
Had the Sox gone down in defeat because the other team's starter pitched a gem, or, for that matter, their own pitcher just didn't have it, that would have been easier to swallow.
But neither scenario proved to be the case. The Red Sox beat themselves.
You'll recall that they did a lot of that early in the season, when they got off to a horrific 10-19 start to the season that had some ready to affix them with a toe tag long before Memorial Day arrived. Remember? The Red Sox would get their chances....and squander them. Or, they would make a mistake or commit an error, and it would prove particularly costly.
To watch the Red Sox Thursday was to believe that the team collectively got nostalgic for those kind of games from earlier in the year. They finished a woeful 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position and stranded a staggering 13 baserunners. On four occasions, they left two runners on and once, they left the bases loaded.
A well-placed ball in play in any number of plate appearances could have changed the game. But the Sox, who had scored five or more runs eight times in the previous 14 games, managed just one run through the first seven before adding two more in the eighth. For the first time in the last half-dozen games, the Sox didn't produce a homer.
Time after time, they allowed A's starter Paul Blackburn off the hook. Even when it seemed like J.D. Martinez was on the verge of a game-tying two-run single up the middle in the eighth, Oakland second baseman Tony Kemp made a diving stop behind the bag to prevent Rafael Devers from scoring, as he was held at third. He remained there when Xander Bogaerts grounded into an inning-ending fielder's choice.
Defense was another culprit.
In the three-run Oakland third, Trevor Story took charge on a ball that drifted back from the infield and into shallow center. The ball kept winding, and Story kept chasing it, until, in medium center, the ball dropped, just out of his reach. It should have been the second out of the inning. Instead, the A's had a gift baserunner in scoring position, and three straight hits followed, scoring three runs.
After the game, neither Alex Cora nor Story disputed questions suggesting that center fielder Jarren Duran would have been better off coming in and helping out.
"Maybe,'' agreed Story.
"Yeah, I guess,'' said Cora. "I think so. Outfielders have priority over infielders (to call balls).''
That one play may also help explain why the Sox promoted Rob Refsnyder over Duran last week in Seattle when they were in need of an outfielder. Duran's speed is an explosive tool, as we saw in the first inning when dragged a bunt to the right of the mound and easily reached base. But if the club doesn't trust his instincts in the outfield, then he remains a defensive liability.
There was more sloppiness in that proved costly in the sixth when a passed ball on the part of Christian Vazquez allowed Seth Brown to advance from first to second, from where he scored the A's fourth run when a hot shot rifled between Devers' legs at third for a two-base error.
Devers has made great strides defensively this year, but plays like that need to be made and the one Thursday proved costly, since it resulted in the winning run crossing the plate.
Frustrating though it may have been, Cora was philosophical about the loss, noting that the Sox had the potential tying run on third in the eighth. And it's hard to harp on a loss that followed a stretch in which the Sox won 11 of 13 -- most of them on the road. They did, after all, win the series, too.
But with ground to make up, it felt like one got away Thursday. And making matters worse, it came when the team played like it did to start the season, and not, instead, how they've played in putting that poor stretch behind them.