On the first day of the second half of the 2022 season, the Red Sox more closely resembled a team of excavators rather than ballplayers.
Returning from the All-Star break, the Red Sox proceeded to dig themselves a new, much deeper hole.
How low can they go? How much further down can they fall?
You thought the twin drubbings by the Yankees in the final weekend of the first half were bad? The Red Sox emerged from their four-day hiatus to tell you, in no uncertain terms: You ain't seen nothing yet.
The Red Sox were thoroughly embarrassed in a 28-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
The lopsided loss came as the Red Sox were hoping to have used the All-Star break as a re-set. They had lost six of their last seven going into the break and gone just 4-10 in a two-week stretch that saw them exclusively play -- and be outclassed by -- the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees.
That, as it turns out, was just a warm-up.
Returning home for the start of a 10-game homestand, the Red Sox fell behind 14-0 before managing a run. Of the five runs they ultimately managed to score, two came on a solo homer from Christian Vazquez.
The grim totals from the last three games: Opponents 55, Red Sox 8.
That sounds more like a Week 1 "paycheck game'' for an FBS team against a football powerhouse and not the last three games from a team that entered the second half with postseason ambitions.
It's hard to know where to start with the sorry exhibition turned in by the Red Sox, but the third inning seems a good place to start. With the bases loaded, Raimel Tapia hit a fly ball to center field. Jarren Duran, playing medium center, froze and it soon became obvious that like Christian Arroyo a few weeks ago in right field, he failed to pick up the ball in the twilight.
But at least when that misfortune plagued Arroyo, he sprinted after the ball when it landed. Duran, turned around, saw the ball land at the edge of the grass near the warning track, and waited for left fielder Alex Verdugo, backing up the play, sprinted over to retrieve it. Duran barely moved.
Asked for his reaction to the lack of hustle, Alex Cora indicated that some veteran players spoke to Duran about not running after the ball.
"That's one of the things that our guys do a good job with,'' said Cora. "Obviously, he expects (right fielder) Jackie (Bradley Jr.) and Alex to go (after it), but at the same time, you've got to go, too. That's conversations between players, and sometimes that voice is a lot louder than the manager's in those situations. It's a hard feeling. There's nothing you can do. But it's stuff we address. We're trying to make him better, help him out. He's still a kid, he's learning the position and all that. At that point, you know, he didn't even know what to do.''
After the loss, Duran was sullen as he dutifully approached a group of reporters who has asked to speak with him.
"Dugie was right there already,'' said Duran of Verdugo, when asked why he didn't run after the ball. "Obviously, I should have taken a step or two, but he was already going after the ball, so you know, I just didn't want to get in his way. What if I sprinted and collided with him or something like that? Next time, I know to take one or two steps. But he was already en route to the ball.''
When asked about the conversations he had with teammates or coaches after that inning, Duran responded: "Didn't really talk to anybody.''
He then added the feeling of not being able to see the ball was "the most helpless feeling you could ever feel. Until you guys catch a flyball in twilight, let me know.''
OK, then. So Duran essentially denied he did anything wrong, contradicted his manager when it came to conversations about accountability, and in a bit of time-honored passive-aggressiveness, suggested reporters weren't equipped to understand what he had gone through.
It was that kind of night for the Red Sox.
Losing is one thing. One-sided losses happen to the best of teams, and as Christian Vazquez noted afterward, the best approach is to mentally "flush'' the loss -- forget it and come back tomorrow.
But when a player with fewer than a half season of big league experience dogs it in center field and then gets snippy when asked about it afterward, perhaps there are larger issues at work here for the Red Sox.
All in all, it was hardly the start to the second half for which the Sox had been hoping.
Cora had spelled out what was at stake before the game.
"Obviously, we didn't play good baseball toward the end of the first part of the season,'' said Cora. "Do we have to be better? Of course we have to be better. We have to be more consistent in every aspect of the game...We just have to be better, bottom-line. Play good baseball, win series, and if you're do that, you're going to be OK.''
What followed was far from OK. And only some of that had to do with the final score.