The Red Sox had scored nine runs in each of the first three games of the season, which was nice and all, but let's face it: as strategies go, that one wasn't exactly sustainable.
Eventually, there would come a game in which they failed to reach that magic number. Sure enough, they were limited to six Monday night, and that wasn't enough to overtake the Pittsburgh Pirates.
For that, you can blame the starting rotation, and not the lineup.
In four games to date, the Red Sox have only had one starter pitch into the fifth inning. That was Tanner Houck, who while not exactly dominant Sunday in allowing three runs over five innings, at least gave the Sox a chance.
The same can't be said for Corey Kluber (five runs in 3.1 innings), Chris Sale (seven runs in three innings) or, certainly, Kutter Crawford, who gave up seven runs over four innings.
Crawford's presence in the rotation is meant to be temporary. He's here because Garrett Whitlock, Brayan Bello and James Paxton aren't, tough Whitlock is one start away from rejoining the roster and Bello isn't far behind. Still, Crawford didn't do much to enhance his standing with a poor showing Monday,
He was tagged for three runs in the first inning of the Red Sox' 7-6 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and while he was the victim of some of bad luck -- including a catchable ball that managed to elude both Rafael Devers and KikΓ© Hernandez and another hit that clipped the newly-enlarged bag at first and shot into the outfield -- some of the damage done was his own fault.
The Red Sox offense immediately bailed him out in the bottom of the inning by launching three homers and scoring five times, wiping out the 3-0 hole Crawford had dug. But Crawford couldn't take advantage -- he gave back another run in the second, another in the third and two more in the fourth when the Pirates belted two homers to take a lead they would not relinquish.
Crawford made no excuses for himself afterward.
"Just not a good performance on my part,'' said Crawford. "No matter what kind of luck I get, I still need to execute pitches to make outs and I wasn't able to to do that. That kind of stuff happens, but I still have to execute ... When I leave pitches out of the heart of the plate, this is the big leagues. Guys are going to put the barrel on them. I didn't make pitches and they put good swings on them.''
"He mixed his pitches well, used his cutter really well,'' assessed pitching coach Dave Bush, "but there were just some pitches left over the middle of the plate that missed location and were hit pretty hard.''
As a temporary part of the rotation, Crawford's struggles aren't quite as damning. Far more concerning is the work of both Kluber and Sale, established veterans who were cuffed around in their initial outings. Perhaps they were nothing more than bad days; the Sox had better hope that both can improve.
Meanwhile, Monday represented the third time in the first four games that the Sox were forced to go to their bullpen far earlier than they would have preferred. As it was, Alex Cora probably stuck with Crawford for an inning more that he would have liked. Crawford was already at 72 pitches after three and clearly not fooling anyone in the Pittsburgh lineup. But rather than turn to the pen in the fourth, he sent him out again hoping he could squeeze three more outs from Crawford and avoid overtaxing his relievers. The move backfired when Crawford yielded two more solo homers.
Amazingly, the bullpen has responded to the early-season challenges. In the first three games, Boston relievers managed to keep the game within reach and twice, they did their job well enough that the offense eventually saved the day.
Four different relievers covered the final five innings Monday night, with Zack Kelly supplying two shutout frames in the middle innings before Richard Bleier, Kaleb Ort and Ryan Brasier each provided a scoreless inning of their own.
But that can't continue, either. Eventually, the relievers are going to get worn down from overuse.
It's on the starters to provide more innings and do their part.
"They obviously want to go deeper than they have been,'' said Bush. "But the first time through, we have some things to work on, as we always do. They'll come back better next time around. For a variety of reasons, the ball's been carrying quite a bit, so we've got to do a better job making pitches, keep the ball on the ground and keep it in the yard. That will start eliminating some runs for us, for sure.''
Trading homer and hoping the offense can outslug the opposition, as the Red Sox have already found, is, if not a losing proposition, than at least no better than a .500 one.