There’s very little positive to say about last night’s 8-1 loss to the Jays. The Blue Jays sweep, along with the Yankees victory, has dropped the Sox to 4th place in the AL East. That’s not a terribly big deal, as the team is only a half game back of the Yankees and Jays. It is a little bit scary that the team isn’t outperforming its expected win-loss, but a handful of home games should get the offense clicking again.

Wade Miller had his first really bad start in a Sox uniform, giving up 7 runs in just 2 innings. There’s not really anything good to take away from this start. His control was bad, his velocity was down, and his mechanics were inconsistent. The low velocity is a bit of a scary sign for a pitcher coming back from a rotator cuff injury, but it may not be a need for worry. According to Miller’s STATS Inc. Scouting Report:

Miller has a complicated delivery that has to be just right for him to be effective. When he’s right, Miller has as much stuff as practically anyone on the staff, throwing his fastball in the mid-90s and his slider around 90 MPH. The slightest deviation, however, and he not only has troubles pitching, but can be prone to injury.

Ok, so the “prone to injury” bit is a little scary. But combining that bit of info with Miller’s own admission in Nick Cafardo’s Globe recap:

‘Physically I feel fine, but mechanically I was just a mess out there,” Miller said. ‘’My arm angle was everywhere. My bullpen [session] just didn’t quite feel right. I just didn’t have it.”

Maybe we don’t have too much to worry about just yet.

The bullpen was one of two bright spots for the night. Jeremi Gonzalez (more on him later) threw 4 innings of relief, giving up just a single run. Alan Embree and Mike Myers each threw a scoreless inning. You can’t read too much into those relief innings, as teams that get up early tend to coast through later innings, but still, it’s good to see the bullpen pick up the slack a bit for the starters.

The other bright spot was the 3-4 night by Kevin Millar. Millar, who’s still hitting at a ridiculously low clip, closed his stance up and hit a couple of solid liners on pitches that he’d recently been fouling off. Check out his at-bats via the Game Chart on cbs.sportsline.com.

Finally, the Sox will be keeping a close eye on Millar as they purchased the contract of John Olerud. The team made a bevy of moves yesterday, designating Shawn Wooten for assignment to make room on the 40 man for Olerud, and optioning Jeremi Gonzalez to Pawtucket to bring up Kelly Shoppach to backup Jason Varitek.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how Terry Francona uses Olerud and Shoppach. Francona has been very reluctant to use players in place of his veteran starters, a trait that got him in trouble in Philadelphia but seems to help keep the Boston clubhouse at an even keel. If Millar hasn’t turned it around, will we see more Youkilis and Olerud? Will Shoppach get Wakefield duty — meaning he’d get the start tonight against Randy Johnson? Lots of interesting subplots could develop over the next couple of weeks. Shoppach has been hitting extremely well in Pawtucket (.279/.392/.571). He does strike out good bit (about 25% of his plate appearances), but has put up numbers better than what Jason Varitek did in AAA at the same age, so take that for what it is worth.