The Red Sox' final game before the trade deadline provided Red Sox fans with three hours of agony and one last reminder why exactly they're sellers in 2014.
In case you didn't get that message, it's because they're pretty bad at baseball.
Brandon Workman was pretty bad tonight. He was only tagged with two earned runs in the end, and to be fair, it was a situation where errors legitimately cost him runs. But...frankly said errors were more making up for runs he should have allowed just based on the quality of his pitching, and one of them was his own doing anyway.
Thoroughly wild, Workman walked the first two batters he faced, then allowed both to score to put Boston in an early 2-0 hole. In the fifth, it was another walk which started the second Blue Jays rally, with Workman botching the throw to first on Jose Reyes' bunt and Xander Bogaerts providing a fielding gaffe of his own to turn what probably should have been a one-run frame into an embarrassing three-run circus of an inning. So, yes, impactful errors, but when you walk four and strike only two batters out, you can expect some disappointing results.
Mark Buehrle wasn't exactly going insane on the mound himself, but the recipe for his success was as simple as facing Boston's lineup. The infield provided some spark, with Xander Bogaerts,Stephen Drew, and Dustin Pedroia each providing a pair of hits, Bogaerts scoring Boston's only run in the bottom of the fifth courtesy a Christian Vazquez' ground-rule double into the bullpen in right.
Unfortunately, though, the only hit left unmentioned in that last paragraph is an isolated Mike Napoli double in the fourth. Brock Holt's cold spell continues uninterrupted, Jackie Bradley Jr. is suddenly cold, and Shane Victorino was removed halfway through the game as a "precautionary measure."
Frankly, the most noteworthy events were appearances from Andrew Miller and Koji Uehara, likely tradees both of them, and the presence of scattered "Jon Lester" chants throughout the night. It's clear everyone's attention is focused elsewhere, and given the product on the field, who can blame them?