Red Sox 2, Indians 8: Out of reach

The .500 dream is dead. A rough final outing for Henry Owens left the Red Sox 8-2 losers in Cleveland, ensuring that they'll finish the season with a losing record.

There's little good to be said about Owens' outing. While it wasn't until the third that the Indians broke through against him, he had already walked two batters by the end of the first, only escaping thanks to Mookie Betts gunning down Francisco Lindor at home. The second was uneventful, but a leadoff single and a third base on balls left Owens in immediate trouble come the third, and while he was able to get Lindor on strikes, Ryan Raburn and Carlos Santana followed up with a pair of hits to put the Indians ahead 3-0, with Chris Johnson tacking on a fourth before Owens could pick up the third out.

The Red Sox briefly fought back in the top of the fourth, with Xander Bogaerts singling and David Ortiz launching a Tomlin-speed fastball in the bottom of the zone into the right field stands for a two-run shot. That cut the Indians' lead in half, but not for long. Owens survived the fourth, but the bottom of the fifth proved a total disaster. After quickly inducing a pop-up from Ryan Raburn, Owens was apparently out of outs. Carlos Santana drew a walk, and then the hit parade began, with Yan Gomes, Chris Johnson, Jerry Sands, and Abraham Almonte establishing a conga line of baserunners, bringing three more runs home for the Indians before Jonathan Aro finally came in to finish the frame without allowing any further damage.

Aro did a solid enough job in relief, only stumbling in the bottom of the seventh by allowing a solo shot to Sands while recording eight outs. But that left little enough work to be done for the rest of Boston's bullpen, as the lineup was not capable of forcing the Indians to take the plate in the ninth. In fact, while the Red Sox managed a few baserunners, all but one came by way of the walk (or hit batter), and their one chance to get a couple runs back in the seventh ended suddenly on a Blake Swihart double play.

Thus ends the last chance for the Red Sox to achieve anything in the 2015 season. That doesn't erase the good work the Sox did in the last couple months here, but it's an unfortunate way to end the year. At least that wasn't decided until the final series of the year, rather than the beginning of September.