Yet, while it would be easy to point fingers at the offense and express disappointment in certain players, the 5-16 September skid is not the fault of the hitters.
The Red Sox rank third in September in runs scored with 122, just one swing of the bat behind Detroit (126) and Texas (125). With 25 more runs than the Yankees, they're still the most potent offense in baseball in 2011. They're hitting .280 (sixth in the majors, fourth in the AL), they're fourth in the majors with 209 hits and they have an .807 team OPS (fourth in the bigs). Marco Scutaro is hitting .386 with a .980 OPS in the month and Mike Aviles is hitting .389 with a 1.072 OPS in that same stretch. They're scoring plenty of runs, so it's not their fault, per se. There is, however, a problem with when they're scoring those runs.
In their five wins, the Red Sox have scored, on average, 13.2 runs per game. Those victories include a 14-0 win in Toronto and 18-6 and 18-9 victories over the Blue Jays and Orioles, respectively, at Fenway Park. The Sox had just one close win, a 4-3 victory over the Rays. The other four were won by an average of 10 runs.
In their 16 losses, the Sox have averaged just 3.5 runs per game. They've lost six games by one run and two more by two runs. One more hit in any one of those eight games could have swung the game in the Red Sox' favor, but that one hit has been elusive all month long.
Still, while some walk-off wins at Fenway might have been the jump start that this team needed to get energized, they wouldn't be necessary if the pitching wasn't such a disaster. ESPN.com's Jeremy Lundblad detailed that issue rather extensively this week. Among the highlights:
- Boston has had just three quality starts in its last 15 games.
- The Red Sox' rotation is on pace to post the worst September collective ERA in team history and are close to the worst such mark in any month in the team's history.
- Ten different pitchers have made four or more starts for Boston this season, which is tied for most in MLB.
- The Red Sox have used five or more pitchers in nine games this month, a result of the starters averaging fewer than five innings per start.
Lundblad presents some overwhelming evidence, but there is still one stat this is impossible to ignore: The Red Sox are 2-58 when trailing after seven innings this season.
As bad as the pitching has been, it's hard to shake the images of the Sox going down quietly to end ballgames. This week alone, Jim Johnson needed just seven pitches to record a perfect ninth inning and earn a save on Monday, he needed 11 pitches face the minimum three batters in a perfect save on Tuesday and he needed just nine pitches on Wednesday to do the same. Twenty-seven pitches, nine outs, no hits. In that span, he's faced Jacoby Ellsbury (twice), Adrian Gonzalez, Dustin Pedroia, Carl Crawford, Darnell McDonald, Jed Lowrie, Scutaro and Aviles. Only Ellsbury reached base, but that was because his bat hit the catcher's mitt on an 0-2 count. Pedroia grounded into a double play four pitches later.
Obviously, a few timely hits might have changed everyone's perspective on this team, but as it is right now, the Sox are in the Bronx fighting for their playoff lives with six games left on the schedule. The reasons for that scenario are plentiful, and the blame can be spread around, but the core of this problem is most certainly not the offense. They have the bats to get it done, and the players are performing. It's just a matter of getting some help from the pitching staff and putting it all together at the right time.
As 16 painstaking losses have proven, that's easier said than done.
