The Red Sox sleepwalked through an 8-0 loss to Texas tonight, but of course, that wasn't the story.
Yu Darvish retired the first 20 hitters before David Ortiz hit a sky high pop up that rookie Texas second baseman Rougned Odor misplayed and let drop. It was ruled an error, but he never got a glove on it and the official scorer gave right fielder Alex Rios an error. (Would someone PLEASE explain that one to me?)
It should have been a hit, as no one got a glove on it. (If they weren't in the shift, that easily would have been Rios' ball. The shift giveth, and the shift taketh away.)
But the no-hitter continued, and Papi came up with two outs in the ninth and lined a single to right, directly through the shift. Darvish was once again denied a no-hitter in the ninth with two outs. (He lost a perfect game in 2012 against Houston on a single.)
Darvish was magnificent, striking out 12 and walking 2. Take nothing away from him.
The Red Sox were simply bloody awful.
Clay Buchholz had nothing, giving up six runs in less than five innings.
Absolutely NO consistency with this club through the first six weeks of the season. They not sleepwalked through this game, but have been this entire year so far. Once again, they have not won as many as three in a row and back under .500 once again.
And the question has to be asked now: are these Red Sox no better than just a .500 team this year?