There is a myth that the Red Sox are built around pitching and defense, and therefore the sacrificing of offense is a-ok. You’ll see this mantra reported in the press, or on popular message boards, or even in bars around New England. Unfortunately, the pitching and defense hasn’t been all that good the last time through the rotation either.

This was on display quite prominently last night down in the City of Tampa (St. Petersburg). The Red Sox committed one error, Mike Lowell’s fifth inning throwing error allowing Ty Wiggenton to reach, but it’s not as though starter Matt Clement was just a victim. In six innings, Clement allowed six free passes and threw a wild pitch. This after a day where Josh Beckett walked five in 3.7 innings and allowed three home runs for the second straight outing, and Wakefield walked four. The starters are not helping themselves at all in the last few games.

But the defense part of the equation isn’t nearly as dire as the offense is in the early going. Currently the Red Sox rank 10th in the American League in runs, 10th in slugging, tied for 10th in home runs, and 10th in batting average. While that shows remarkable consistency, it doesn’t so much help the team win ballgames in the even that the pitching is struggling.

Fortunately for Boston, they are fifth in the AL in on base, which means there is a silver lining to the dark offense crowd. But even then, the Sox are saddled with something that was on glorious display last night…because they aren’t hitting for power, once the guys get on base, they stay there.

Youkilis was on base four times last night. Once he was erased on a FC, but three times he died. Manny reached four times, and had no runs to show for it. The Red Sox had nine walks, two hit batsmen, and four singles. Only once did any of that matter in terms of putting runs on the board, and that was JT Snow’s RBI single in the eighth. With one out, and two runs in, the eighth and then the ninth has become a microcosm for the Red Sox this latter part of April.

There are runners on first and second with one out, and the heart of the order coming up. Loretta continues his 2005 Bellhorn impression (pop outs rather than k’s though, so it’s ok) by grounding out harmlessly to short. The Rays poured some salt in the wound by throwing Cora out at third rather than Loretta out at first. Ortiz then unleashed the Fury of God’s Own Thunder by popping out.

The rallying wasn’t done yet though, heck no. Dan Miceli showed his normal pitching prowess by walking Ramirez and Varitek, and getting hooked by Joe Maddon. Tyler Walker, who had been a Ray for about 25 minutes, immediately steps in and gets Lowell to bounce into a double play. Not one to mess around with God Thunder, Nixon looked terrible on a strike out.

The lack of offense has completely sapped the excitement out of watching the Red Sox. Right now, they just don’t have the ability to win baseball games consistently, due to having pretty good pitching and pretty bad hitting. Once Crisp comes back and Loretta and Varitek start to hit, they’ll be in much better shape. Until then though, there is no telling how many lives will be lost on the basepaths.