A Stephen Drew signing made for some fun conversation in Boston, but at the end of the day it was just another bad game from the same team that spent the weekend getting swept by the Tigers.
If there's good news out of this game, it's that the spotlight should land squarely on the part of the team that actually represents the biggest issue: the starting rotation. Felix Doubront was bad. Not just a little bad, either. Sure, he did his usual song and dance, pitching well into the third inning, but Edwin Encarnacion took him a mile and a half deep over the Monster for a two-run shot, and it was all downhill from there.
Everything the Blue Jays hit seemed to be hit with authority. They only managed five hits against Doubront in his four innings of work--he also surrendered three walks--but each one went for extra bases, including a second homer for catcher Erik Kratz. He would leave the game in the fifth inning before recording an out due to "shoulder fatigue" and will receive an MRI. No matter what the scans show, though, it's clearly time for the Red Sox to make changes in their rotation. And if Doubront is not the first to go, he is certainly part of the problem right now.
This is not to say the game was without its other issues. But the offense actually did a decent job. After some early dominance from J.A. Happ, they threatened a big inning in the fourth, but ran into some terrible luck when a bases loaded bullet off Xander Bogaerts' bat found Brett Lawrie perfectly. The third baseman didn't quite make the play on the fly, but he knocked the ball down, freezing David Ortiz a few steps from third, and then recovered to tag the bag and throw the designated hitter out at home, ending the inning.
The actual damage would come in the next couple of innings, with a trio of doubles scoring a pair of runs for the Red Sox in the fifth and another pair of runs coming in on a Jonny Gomes homer in the sixth. The Red Sox would continue to threaten late into the game, but an awful call for a bunt from Brock Holt with two men on in front of David Ross and Jackie Bradley Jr. had predictable results, and the Sox wasted another pair of leadoff runners in the ninth, leaving them still down by three when the final out was recorded.
At four below .500, the Red Sox have reached a new low on the season. Perhaps things will look up soon, but there's little enough hope for that while this rotation remains the way it is.