The Red Sox suffered the latest and greatest in what has been a series of catastrophes starting all the way back in September, with the bullpen taking a 9-0 lead in the fifth inning and turning into a 15-9 deficit at the end of nine innings, dropping the team to 4-10 on the season.
The Red Sox got off to a strong start against Freddy Garcia, scoring twice in the first and thrice in the second, chasing him after recording just five outs. With Clay Rapada and David Phelps allowing four more runs to come across, with Cody Ross knocking a two-run shot to dead center to make it 9-0 in the bottom of the fifth, the game seemed to be well in hand.
Felix Doubront, for his part, had been rolling nicely along through the first six innings, allowing just the one run while striking out seven batters and walking three. With his pitch count over 100, however, Bobby Valentine turned to the pen in the seventh, and that's when their fate was sealed.
While FOX was busy showing Phil Humber complete his perfect game in Seattle, Vicente Padilla was busy giving away a grand slam to Nick Swisher. After another double, Matt Albers entered the game and, after a fielding error allowed Alex Rodriguez to reach, surrendered a three-run shot to Mark Teixeira. Just like that, it was a one-run game.
Still, all the Sox needed was six outs. Instead, Alfredo Aceves and Justin Thomas proceeded to give up another seven runs, completely reversing the game from a sure Sox win to a sure Sox loss.
Rock bottom? At this point, it makes more sense to wait for tomorrow before assuming we've reached it just yet.