Maybe it's just going to be this kind of season.
When the Red Sox left Boston on Wednesday, I honestly believed they were about to win 10 out of 12. The starting pitching had stabilized, the offense was finding different ways to score, and the schedule was about to turn as soft as brie.
The 3-9 start and 13-17 April? Distant memories. Go to Chicago, take care of business behind David Price, and keep reminding the American League that the road to the World Series passes through Boston.
But whereas the Red Sox breezed to wins last year like they were walking the dog, now victories require the kind of slogs reserved for the Iditarod.
That said, for about eight and a half innings on Thursday, all went mostly according to plan. Price delivered a solid outing, the top of the order produced four runs, relievers Brandon Workman and Matt Barnes slammed the door, and then Ryan Brasier took the ball in the ninth.
Brasier owned just one previous misstep this season, a go-ahead grand slam to Brett Gardner after Workman had loaded the bases in Yankee Stadium last month. Otherwise, he had locked down the ninth with six saves in seven chances.
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His overall numbers may pale compared to Barnes, who has struck out more than half of the batters he has faced (26 of 51), but he had gotten the job done.
Unfortunately, if there's one thing we've learned in this strangely subdued, misfiring title defense, it's that the Red Sox will do as many little things to cost them games as win them.
On Thursday, that meant third baseman Rafael Devers once again booting a routine groundball, this time with one out in the ninth. His ninth error gave Chicago life in a 4-3 game, and the ensuing opposite-field single that put runners on the corners suddenly made victory feel very tenuous.
The Red Sox still had a way out when Nicky Delmonico stepped in with one out and lofted a foul pop behind first base, but it caught just enough of the camera well to elude the outstretched glove of first baseman Mitch Moreland.
Given new life, Delmonico did not miss when Brasier hung a slider, ripping it just beyond the fingertips of a leaping Jackie Bradley in center for the walk-off three-run homer that leaves us wondering if this is simply how it's going to be.
"I made a bad pitch and he did what he's supposed to do with it," Brasier told reporters in Chicago.
The Red Sox aren't the first defending champ to battle a post-title hangover, but that doesn't make their struggles any less surprising. They did virtually everything right last year en route to 108 wins and their fourth championship since 2004.
They seem incapable of building any momentum a year later, despite returning the same roster and a bunch of players in their prime. They followed a sweep of the Rays with a doubleheader loss to the Tigers, and then won eight of 12 before opening this trip with a walk-off heartbreaker.
It was hard to watch it all unravel, but maybe we should get used to it, because at the moment, the Red Sox are the team that wants nothing to come easy.
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