The time for words is over.
The Red Sox can no longer blame their struggles on the specter of last September hanging over their season, on the difficulty of adjusting to Bobby Valentine's managerial style or on the multitude of rumors floating around.
After 117 games, the blame can only be focused on one place: the performance of the team on the field. Which is exactly where Dustin Pedroia placed it Tuesday after another loss for the Sox.
"We haven't played well," the second baseman said after Tuesday's 7-1 drubbing, this time at the hands of Mark Reynolds and the Orioles. "That's the bottom line. I'm not going to blame anything on Bobby, and I don't think anybody else is. It's on the players."
Yet despite Pedroia's assertion, many people still want to point a finger at the manager's office as a root cause for the team's dysfunction.
As if Valentine was responsible for the three home runs surrendered by Red Sox pitching Tuesday night. As if Valentine was the one who went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, too. As if Valentine was the one causing the historic number of injuries the Red Sox have had to deal with this year or is somehow behind the starting pitching's inability to provide quality innings on a consistent basis.
"It's tough when all this stuff comes out that everyone's trying to get the manager fired," Pedroia reiterated. "It's not the case, man."
Whatever the case may be, the attention that Valentine is getting this season detracts from the underlying truth: The Red Sox have not played well in 2012. Their pitching has been poor, their hitting inconsistent and their bullpen (while stellar at the start of this year) has flagged as of late.
No amount of tell-all reporting or anonymous sourcing is going to change that fact. Only the play of those 25 men responsible on the field will.
Pedroia is right to assign the blame to the players, because ultimately they are the only ones who stand a chance of turning things around. Valentine can only do so much from the dugout. He doesn't hit, he doesn't pitch and he doesn't run the bases.
"We're going to go out and play as hard as we can," Pedroia declared. "That's all you can do. We've dug ourselves this hole, and we've got to try to dig ourselves out of it."
Valentine didn't dig this hole — the Red Sox broke ground on it last season. So however the team finds its way out, the players will be the ones carrying the shovels.
