Editor’s note: NESN.com is going to tell the story of the 2012 Red Sox in Bobby Valentine’s words. Each game day, we will select the best Valentine quote that sums up the day for the Red Sox.
For the fourth consecutive game, the Red Sox hitters came to bat for the first time already down multiple runs. Unlike Saturday’s doubleheader night cap, this time they were not able to come back from the deficit.
Like clockwork, the Red Sox starting pitchers gave up five, four, three and two runs in each game of the four-contest set, respectively. The Red Sox actually rank above the Yankees in runs scored on the season, but going down in that kind of hole early doesn’t just create a numerical deficit, but a deficit of morale, as well.
“We’ve talked about it, we’ve tried to dissect it and figure it out,” Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine told WEEI before Sunday evening’s game. “Maybe something will come to us during the break or tonight’s game.”
Well, the solution to those first inning blues did not come Sunday for the Red Sox, who yielded a deuce in the first inning on a Mark Teixeira double and a Nick Swisher groundout. The Yankees never looked back from there, as starter Ivan Nova struck out ten and gave up only two runs in his six innings of work, while the offense added a run in the third and two more in the fifth to break the game open.
There’s no question that the Yankees have a powerful offense — aging as it may be — but the 14 first-inning runs that Boston allowed them was unseemly, putting the entire team down in a hole before they had a chance to use their (superior) bats. Baseball is a team game and you rarely ever want to place too much blame on one area, but this was a series that the Red Sox starting pitching — outside of Felix Doubront, who bounced back nicely Saturday night after giving up three first-frame runs — never really gave the team a chance.
Yes, the rotation is in serious flux. Doubront has been the only constant as Josh Beckett and Jon Lester have been disappointing, Daniel Bard and Daisuke Matsuzaka fell off the map and Clay Buchholz went down with a bizarre illness just as he was rounding in to form. It’s forced the team to rely on former long-reliver Franklin Morales and veteran question mark Aaron Cook.
It’s an unenviable situation, but standing at 43-43, the Sox aren’t out of it yet. They have the offense to go as far as the pitching will take them, but on that end they may have to continue to cobble together a staff.
