Red Sox 2, Athletics 3: Swept Out Of Oakland

The Red Sox' West Coast disaster has ended, appropriately, with a whimper.

Once again, it was a winnable game. Aaron Cook did his usual thing, more or less, getting 13 outs on the ground and five through the air. There were a few hard-hit fly balls, and they did end up costing him two runs, with a homer from Brandon Moss in the second and a leadoff triple from Coco Crisp on a terrible 0-2 pitch helping the Athletics along.

Still, it was a performance that should have been enough, and could have at least kept things tied had it not been for a defensive mishap, with both Mauro Gomez and Mike Aviles losing a pop-up behind third in the sun, allowing the Athletics a baserunner that would score on a Brandon Inge gapper. It will count as an earned run against Cook, but it really shouldn't.

Regardless, we shouldn't be talking about the difference between two and three earned runs for the third time in five games, but here we are. Another terrible offensive performance from the Red Sox managed to waste David Ortiz' milestone 400th home run--a no-doubt blast to right field in the fourth that tied the game at 1-1.

Ortiz also scored Boston's other run after he walked, Salty reached on an error, and Adrian Gonzalez singled up the middle. So that's one player who had a good day. The rest? Not so much. 2-for-28 including the hit from Adrian Gonzalez and a double from Mauro Gomez. This from a team that was taking names on a regular basis a week ago.

With July promising a terribly challenging schedule, the Sox have their work cut out for them over the next four weeks. If they keep playing like this, they're in for a disaster month and likely not headed for a wild card run in August and September.