In their last game of the season, the 2012 Red Sox did nothing but confirm what the season had told us: they were not a good baseball team. A 14-2 defeat is the final embarrassment suffered by this team on which the book has now thankfully been closed.
The key perpetrator behind this disaster was, of course, Daisuke Matsuzaka, who mimiced the Sox in proving his inadequacy as a pitcher in his final start with the team. The first inning was a quick six-pitch affair, the second a longer three-run mess courtesy of a Curtis Granderson homer. Four batters into the third he'd already allowed another three baserunners and two runs, and just like that his time with the Sox was at an end.
The bullpen, to be fair, did more then their share of the damage. Clay Mortensen surrendered a two-run shot in his third inning of work, Pedro Beato two more runs in his one frame, and when it came Chris Carpenter's turn in the seventh, five runs in with just one out to show for it.
And for the Yankees and Hiroki Kuroda it was largely smooth sailing. Aside from a run in the first and a run in the seventh when the Sox actually managed to put two baserunners together inside of a frame, it was a classic case of one at a time. One man on in an inning, one man stranded in an inning.
By the time the ninth came to an end it was nothing more than a mercy killing.