This should come as no shock, but the Red Sox starting pitchers -- after the veritable rotational rocks of Josh Beckett and Jon Lester -- have hit the mother of all rough patches since the All-Star break.

Beckett is sitting at 2-1 with a 2.86 ERA in three starts since the All-Star break and continues to be the very spitting image of the 2007 Sox ace that spit, cussed and fumed his way to Cy Young consideration and a World Series Championship. Lester is 1-1 with an entirely passable 3.86 ERA in three post-ASB outings, and together Boston’s 1-2 hurling combination is 3-2 with a 3.19 ERA in 48 post-ASB innings pitched.

The rest of the Sox tattered rotation hasn’t exactly been getting the job done.
With 43-year-old Tim Wakefield resting his creaky back and bothersome sciatica – which dredges up bad memories of the final hobbling days of Dwight Evans in a Red Sox uniform…yikes – John Smoltz, Brad Penny and Clay Buchholz have been nothing short of a mound train wreck over the last few weeks.

Smoltz (9.18 ERA in 16 2/3 innings), Penny (7.25 in 22 1/3 innings) and Buchholz (6.05 ERA in 19 1/3 innings) have the three worst ERA’s on the Sox pitching staff since the break, and the three starters are a combined 3-6 in 11 starts with a 7.41 ERA with 15 home runs allowed in 58 1/3 innings pitched.

That is something that needs to be rectified immediately if the Sox are hoping to avoid losing any more ground to a New York Yankees team that the Olde Towne Team currently trail by 2 ½ games in the AL East.
Particularly when a quick perusal of the schedule reveals that the Sox follow their current four-game series in the Bronx with a four-game set against the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers at Fenway and then a road series against a solid-hitting Texas Rangers team that’s pounded Boston pitching this season.

Both the aging Big Game pitcher (Smoltz) and wet-behind-the-ears (Buchholz) end of the awful troika are set to enter the belly of the beast in Yankee Stadium in a quartet of intriguing pitching matchups. The 41-year-old Smoltz will take on Joba Chamberlain Thursday night at the House that Hank and Hal built, and Buchholz locks up with C.C. Sabathia in a huge gut check of a start for the 24-year-old prospect on Saturday.

Can Smoltz begin to nullify left-handed hitters that have whacked his fastball around unmercifully to the tune of a .403 batting average and 1.098 OPS clip?

Will Buchholz finally harness the “stuff” that everybody raves about and begin pounding the zone with a potentially devastating fastball/curve/changeup combo?

Both pitchers need to address the mental and physical problems that have dogged them for their entire stints with the Sox this season, or Beckett and Lester will be forced to be nothing less than flawless in their two outings for a Sox team merely hoping for a “treading water” split of the four-game set.

In that case, this might just be a playoff preview within the setting of Yankees Stadium as the Sox will be leaning heavily – and perhaps solely -- on the strong shoulders of Beckett and Lester during the postseason if one body out of the Smoltz/Penny/Buchholz/Wakefield/Daisuke Matsuzaka mass of pitching arms doesn’t step forth and be counted. Beckett and Lester might just be good enough to carry the load all by themselves once the postseason “tournament” arrives, but it certainly wouldn’t be the optimal pathway to prosperity.

BOSTON -- Just as was the case last season when the Manny Ramirez saga was weighing on the collective psyche of a troubled Red Sox clubhouse, the Boston baseball bunch is playing some of its worst baseball leading up to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

The sluggish Sox have won only three of their last 11 games and dropped 3 ½ games behind the incendiary New York Yankees in the AL East standings following another listless defeat at the hands of an inferior AL West team in Oakland – the Sox are 9-18 against the AL West this season – and the team is screaming out for some roster improvements.

Last year’s situation was clearly different as Ramirez’s defiant attitude and contract squabbles mixed to create a toxic cloud over the Sox clubhouse, but this year’s edition of the Red Stockings have their own issues to solve.

This time around Jason Bay and Kevin Youkilis are locked in slumps smack dab in the middle of Boston’s batting order, and every starting pitcher outside of Jon Lester and Josh Beckett has smacked head-long into a major rough patch when it comes to their turn in the starting rotation.

“It all comes down to starting pitching,” said Sox catcher Jason Varitek. “That’s what got us to where we were before. It’s not like we were scoring 15 runs (a game)."

The catcalls for Victor Martinez to bolster a sagging offense -- or Roy Halladay to help form a seemingly unbeatable starting trio along with Beckett and Lester – are getting louder and more unified each night the Olde Towne Team finds a new and more infuriating way to drop a ballgame.

Hearing the Sox Captain – the certified conscience and Heart of the Soul of the team for over a decade – talk about starting pitching with that kind of gravitas should give out all the answers needed from those sharing stalls inside Yawkey Way. Bringing in Martinez would disrupt playing time in all corners of the roster as David Ortiz, Mike Lowell, Varitek and even Youkilis – not to mention Adam LaRoche – would all need to share time on the bench in order to make room for the switch-hitting Martinez in the lineup.

Could V-Mart help a slumping Sox offense with his .297 career batting average and significant power bat? Of course the 30-year-old could, but there’s just as good a chance that Ortiz, Drew and Bay all bounce back strongly over the final two months and help carry Boston with adequate offense through September.

There’s more and more talk from the Sox camp about the importance of a classic baseball credo, “the purpose of the game is only to score more runs than your opposition”. In some cases, like the Man-Ram and Big Papi-led Boston offense of five years ago, the Sox could simply overwhelm their opposition with a lethal, grinding offense supported by a pair of strong starting pitchers and an adequate bullpen.

But there’s also the chance to acquire a starter in Halladay, who yearns to pitch in the playoffs for the first time in his career and ranks that as a top priority ahead of money and looming free agency, for a steep price. Much less would be needed out of Boston’s aging offensive pieces if the Sox could throw a trio of Beckett, Lester and Halladay into the mix along with a lockdown bullpen that’s been among the best in the Majors this season.

Hence, the Sox could score significantly less runs if they also had a pitching staff that specialized in throwing up zeroes across the board. 

Sox GM Theo Epstein always does a commendable job of ignoring the “sound and fury” surrounding his baseball team, and the Sox are deftly exploring every last avenue to improve a baseball club with some clear trouble areas.

“I think there’s definite frustration,” said Sox third baseman Mike Lowell. “I don’t think there’s panic. We definitely want to play better as a team, that’s for sure.”

The Sox are still 1 ½ games over the Texas Rangers for the AL Wild Card spot and situated in a pretty good spot heading into the final two months of the baseball season, but they sure look like a ballclub on the brink – a team in need of something to potentially put them over the top this season.

As Lowell said, there isn’t any panic.

Epstein, assistant general manager Jed Hoyer, Ben Cherington, Mike Hazen and scouting director Jason MacLeod have put together an abundant crop of talented prospects throughout their minor league system, and there’s a new generation of players with names like Tazawa and Kelly rapidly rising through the system. There is both depth and quality, and there are able bodies and golden arms ready to step in should the Sox part, however hesitantly, with young prospects in exchange for Halladay and a legitimate shot at a World Series title this fall.

The Red Sox rightfully covets their prospects and – under Epstein’s control – haven’t really surrendered many of their prized young ballplayers in a prospects-for-proven veterans deal at the deadline. Matt Murton was involved in the Nomar Garciaparra trade and Engel Beltre was a highly regarded low-level prospect involved in the Eric Gagne deal back in 2007, but neither was considered the crown jewel of the system as Clay Buchholz has been over the last three seasons.

With a stacked minor league system and the ability replenish talent with a tried and true drafting and development system, now is the time to change that patter of behavior. It’s time to utilize a serving of the prospects for one of their ultimate purposes – as chips to help fill other areas of need throughout the system.

Now is the time for the brilliant minds housed in the Yawkey Way executive offices to determine exactly what that “something” happens to be, and then use their considerable resources to seize it.  

Some really troubling numbers for Jonathan Papelbon in the wake of Tuesday night’s deflating defeat at the hands of the Oakland A’s. The closer started paying the piper with his third blown save in the ninth inning – along with a great deal of help from shortstop Nick Green and perhaps a little too much confidence in his own admittedly special throwing arm -- after playing with fire for much of the season in a series of defeat-defying saves.

“Walking the leadoff hitter – regardless of who it is – is not what we’re looking for there pretty much. That walk really set the tone for the rest of the inning,” said Papelbon after Tuesday night's heart-ripping loss. “I had good stuff and they were able to put together some pretty good at bats. I have two outs there. I’ve got to finish that game.”

It all started with a walk to the leadoff hitter Jack Cust by Papelbon and led to three runs and three hits in 21 excruciating Pap pitches in the ninth inning. Papelbon’s ERA, a fairly inconsequential stat in the world of relievers, has jumped over 2.00 for the first time since June 11, but there are other statistics under the surface that are of much bigger concern for Boston's last Man Standing in the bullpen.

The 28-year-old Papelbon has still saved 25 out of 28 games and hasn’t had the bottom line affected on too many occasions by his high-wire act, but he’s walking more hitters and giving up more hits than at any time before in his Major League bullpen career.
It has been well-document that Papelbon has never averaged more than 15.6 pitchers per inning during his career closing games for the Red Sox, but he’s all the way up to 17.7 pitches per game in 43 appearances this season.

The higher workload each inning has Papelbon on target to easily surpass last season’s career-high in pitches thrown for the season (1051 pitches), and the closer is allowing opposing hitters to bat .236 against him this season – a desirable number for the mere mortal pitchers of the world, but a steady sign of trouble for a hard-throwing dominator that holds a career batting average against of .201 versus Major League hitters.

After averaging double-digit strikeout per nine innings numbers over the last two seasons, the 28-year-old righty is sitting at the lowest number (9.42) since his 2005 big league debut with the Sox and his K/BB ratio of 2.25 is by far the worst of his big league career. Papelbon had an astounding 9.63 K/BB ratio last season – a number that would be difficult for anybody to repeat and simply goes into the books as one of the superhuman statistics Papelbon has put up over the course of an amazing start to a Major League career – but was between 5-6 K/BB ratio in his All-Star campaigns in both 2006 and 2007.

While none of the numbers besides K/BB ratio really jump off the page at you, Papelbon is allowing more hits than ever before, has already coughed up as many home runs (4) as he did all of last season and has already walked the most batters (20) of his Major League career before the baseball calendar has even hit August in 2009.

Papelbon has indicated that a lot of the statistical jumps this year are due to altered mechanics that take some of the strain off his arm, and instead put more of the torque from his delivery in his engine piston-like legs. The adjustment was made by Papelbon to keep him from running on fumes during the playoffs – a problem that clearly cropped up by Game 7 of the ALCS series against the Tampa Bay Rays last season -- with the assumption that the Sox closer will be pitching deep into October.

But all of the conserving and efficiency in the world isn’t going to matter if the Sox keep riding the Papelbon high-wire act through the ninth inning of games, and don’t make the playoffs because of more defeats grasped from the talons of victory just like Tuesday night’s heartbreaker against the weak-hitting A’s.

Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell has hit at a .381 clip since coming off the 15-day disabled list just after the All-Star break, but the veteran corner infielder found himself out of the starting lineup for the second consecutive game on Monday night's series opener against the A's. Sox manager Terry Francona said that the acquisition of Adam LaRoche would allow him to rest Lowell and his still-healing hip coming down the stretch, but both Francona and Lowell said he was physically fine prior to Monday's game.

Instead Lowell sits with LaRoche at first and Kevn Youkilis at third base. The new guy LaRoche has hit well in his first couple of games at Fenway Park, and Lowell will get his ABs with a couple of left-handed starters coming up on the schedule in Brett Anderson on Wednesday and Gio Gonzalez on Thursday. Here's a quick Q&A with Lowell about two straight games on the bench -- a strange place for a guy that routinely hears Iron Man play at the Fens when he strides up to the plate.

How do you feel? ML: I feel great. I feel really good. I can’t really complain about the way I feel. I’m just trying to get myself ready to play and that’s what I’m doing.”

Kind of surprised when you saw the lineup card today and you weren’t in the lineup? ML: No, I got a text message yesterday. I think we’re trying to find what’s the best combination for us to win ballgames, and I should be satisfied that I’ve been hitting the ball well since I back after the All-star break. I’ve got to believe you want to put as many guys in the lineup as you can to score as many runs as you can. So we’ll see how things play out.

For 10 years you’ve come to the ballpark knowing your name is in the lineup, so how much of an adjustment is it when it’s not in there? ML: It’s not (an adjustment) because it’s only been two games. We’re going to see how it goes, but if we keep going like this there’s going to be major changes in the lineup. We’ve got to start swinging the bats and we’ve got to start scoring runs. I don’t think anything is etched in stone. I was told that I was going to get more days off.

Like I’ve said in the past ‘winning determines who plays in the games’. We’ve got to win some games. It’s that simple. What we’re doing is not winning whether it’s one aspect or another. We’ve got to find the right combination. We’re all on the same page on that.

When the trade was made was there a sense there could be a change in how playing time was allocated? ML: Well, I was told that they were going (after) someone to give them the flexibility to give me more days off than normal, and I told Theo I can’t argue with that philosophy. The guy has been here 3 days.

I’m not going to worry about anything right now. We’ll see how things go, but the world isn’t coming to an end. I’m much more concerned that we’re playing (badly) against teams that we should be playing much better against. That’s not a one man thing. That’s a 25 man thing.

What is this week like for you guys when it comes to the trade deadline? ML: I think most guys, unless their name is specifically involved, kind of read like everyone else. I think there are a lot of smoke and mirrors and people jockeying for position. In the case of Roy Halladay, how much are they really putting out there? Reject this offer and that offer and make teams pony up a lot more.
 
I think there’s a lot of backdoor action going on, but I think that’s kind of exciting to see who is going to try and make a big splash.
Aside from last year, we’ve done some things here and there to try and improve the team. Some things have worked and some things haven’t. The trade on July 31 isn’t always the answer. Everyone gets kind of hyped up because it’s the trade deadline, but more so than not it doesn’t pan out as this franchise-changing move. So we’ll see.

When the Red Sox were forced to call Triple-A farmhand Aaron Bates – who was hitting below .200 in the minor leagues at the time of his promotion to The Show -- at the end of the baseball season’s first half with Jeff Bailey, Mike Lowell and Mark Kotsay all either banged up or already on the 15-day disabled list, it was clear that the organization was badly in need of more positional player depth. 

The need was most pronounced at the corner infield spot where Lowell’s surgically repaired hip has made the 35-year-old one wrong turn away from a liability.

Sox GM Theo Epstein surveyed his banged-up team and their place within the AL East division at the All-Star break and didn’t see any difference between his own ballclub, and equally talented teams in both New York and Tampa Bay. The starting pitching and bullpen depth has played out as a decided strength for the Sox in the first half of the season, but questions loomed about the health and productivity of lineup regulars like third baseman Lowell and designated hitter David Ortiz.

Epstein said during a Wednesday afternoon conference call that doctors told Lowell he might not be completely “right” until the 2010 season as far as his right hip goes, so the LaRoche deals allows the Sox to give their third baseman a proper timetable of rest and spaced out breathers to fully recover.

With that in mind, picking up somebody that could player either first or third – a choice given the invaluable ability of Kevin Youkilis to swing back and forth between first and third base – became a must.

“We’ve been in the market for a player that can do some damage against right-handed pitching and help our depth at the corner infield,” said Epstein. “By a large, large margin the Pirates had the most reasonable acquisition, so this was a chance to get a player that will help our club…and leave us in a position to continue to look for a player with more impact before the end of the trade deadline.

 “This trade was to provide an upgrade in the damage (our lineup does) against right-handed pitching, but also to provide insurance and protection. We don’t have the depth among our position player core that we’d like or that we’ve had in other years, so we’ve made a move. We may make more moves to provide complementary depth and to upgrade for preservation purposes. There’s also a second category of player that we certainly are going to pursue, where we can find significant impact on our roster. Those trades are hard to make and they’re hard to make without surrendering the entire foundation for your future. But it doesn’t mean you don’t pursue them. We’re looking at complementary moves and potentially impactful moves.” 

So after kicking the tires on several options at a corner infield spot that could bring a strong left-handed bat capable of pounding right-handed pitching and spell either Lowell or Ortiz should a worst-case scenario crop up, Epstein and Co. pulled the trigger on a deal that sent smooth-fielding, light-hitting Double-A shortstop Argenis Diaz and Sox farmhand Hunter Strickland to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for 29-year-old first baseman Adam LaRoche, who is facing free agency after the season and could be a Plan B free agent with a strong second half.

Epstein then turned a three-year mistake into more potential outfield/left-handed hitting depth on the bench when he shipped Julio Lugo – who had been designated for assignment prior to the first game back from the All-Star break – and cash considerations to the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder Chris Duncan and a player to be named later. The Sox will send the 6-foot-5 Duncan – who was recently dropped from the Cardinals roster down to their Triple-A affiliate – to Triple-A Pawtucket, but he’s had two different seasons where he’s clobbered more than 20 home runs in a single season for the Cards and could provide the Sox with some emergency pop.

With both moves, the Olde Towne Team now has some major league-proven depth should they sustain any injuries at either the infield or outfield spots going forward – an issue that plagued a bruised-and-battered Boston unit during last season’s seven-game defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays.  

LaRoche is a 29-year-old first baseman that’s averaged 24.5 home runs over the last four seasons, but has also tallied up some pretty impressive strikeouts totals over the last few seasons with a 2007 crescendo of 131 whiffs in 152 games. He’ll see a lot of pitches during his at bats, but his career .338 OBP reveals that he doesn’t walk any more than your average corner infielder. 

LaRoche does boast a career .500 slugging percentage against left-handers and both his batting average and OPS spike significantly in the second half of the baseball season – so that combined with the affordable price tag and some sure-handed, unspectacular defense around the bag at first base made him a suitable, affordable fit for Boston’s needs.

“The big second half numbers are nice,” said Epstein. “It does provide some reason for optimism. Despite the fact that it might not necessarily be predictive, you can’t deny the monster second halves that this guy has had. He’s still hitting for some power, he’s got 38 extra base hits and he’s been a little unlucky on balls hit into play; so if things fall into place and the trend continues and we do get the big second half, then we’ll certainly benefit from it.” 

Reports indicate that the Red Sox are still discussing a potential deal with the Cleveland Indians for Victor Martinez, but they’ve balked at a potential cost of Clay Buchholz for the primo switch-hitter from the Tribe’s lineup.

The Sox will need to clear off a space on Boston’s 25-man roster to make room for LaRoche when he meets up with the team on Friday at Fenway Park, and the Sox medical staff is able to take inventory of some of the aches and pains sustained during a brutal 1-5 road trip through Toronto and Texas.

While some younger Sox pitchers still have options, the best prediction at this address is that the Sox will place Mark Kotsay on the disabled list – another left-handed hitting first baseman candidate – to allow him to heal up a strained right calf that’s bothered him throughout the season.