Red Sox offense still has no pulse

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- I can give you detailed explanations as to what the hitters currently masquerading as Boston's lineup need to do prove to people that they're actually, you know, present.

I can explain how Jered Weaver, the second Angels starter to mow down the Red Sox in two nights, throws across his body and is deceptive and how, when he's spinning his curve as he was Friday, from the batter's box, seeing the baseball can be like a driver trying to read a street sign late at night through a rain-streaked windshield.

'[Jered] Weaver wasn't letting us drive the ball,' David Ortiz says. (Getty Images)

I can diagnose all sorts of problems following Boston's 4-1 loss here Friday, a loss that leaves them two games behind the Los Angeles Angels with the chill of winter just around the corner.

But, ah, heck. None of it would make as much sense as David Ortiz's blueprint for what the Red Sox need to do, at this juncture, to scratch back into this thing.

"Hit the damn ball," Big Papi growled. "What else?"

Yes. Well. Now that you mention it. ...

It's pretty simple: The Red Sox came to Southern California and were hemmed in by the mountains John Lackey constructed over 7 2/3 innings of four-hit ball Thursday and by the oceans of Weaver curveballs and deceptive fastballs over 7 1/3 innings of two-hit ball Friday.

Weaver was exactly what Boston did not need to see in Game 2, a mirror-image of what Lackey was in Game 1.

"That's what I think one of our strengths has been the last 40 or 50 games for our club, since our rotation really got settled," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We've pitched with a lot of the great pitchers that are in our league and we've been able to come away with some wins."

The Red Sox were left reeling, flailing and searching.

"Weaver wasn't letting us drive the ball," Ortiz said. "He was trying to stay off the plate, use all of his pitches, throw them anytime."

"I can't put a finger on it," Kevin Youkilis said. "You hit the ball, and sometimes you get out."

"You bust out all the clichés, I guess," Jason Bay offered. "There is no tomorrow. I think everyone realizes it. What's done is done. Our goal now is to win two at home and do what we can do to get back here [for Game 5] and see what happens."

There hasn't been much to see so far, from the Red Sox perspective.

Over the first two games of this series, they're batting .131.

They've scored one run in 18 innings.

"I think it's a little surprising," Bay said. "You look at the guys we have in the lineup, we expect to score. A walk and a flare and a single. Something."

The heart of their order -- Victor Martinez, Youkilis, Ortiz and Bay -- has combined for three hits. Martinez's RBI single Friday, two batters after Jacoby Ellsbury's triple to lead off the fourth, is the only thing venturing anywhere near to being a clutch hit.

It was difficult to tell which was more quiet Friday night, Boston's hitters or Boston's postgame clubhouse. The spirits were low, the murmuring was lower and the offensive numbers were lowest.

"The first two guys kept the ball out of the middle of the plate," Dustin Pedroia [1 for 8 so far] said. "Sometimes you've just got to tip your cap."

Much as you hate to, especially on a night when Josh Beckett gave you exactly what you hoped. One of the ranking big-game pitchers of our generation -- post-Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez (well, hold off on putting Pedro out to pasture at least until we see how he fares in Colorado on Saturday night) -- Beckett nearly came up big again.

He was mostly sensational for six innings, retiring the first eight Angels in a row and holding them to just a run on three hits in those first six.

But sometimes moments pop up around Boston which show just how inconvenient it's been for Jason Varitek to go and get old on the Red Sox. The seventh inning was one of them.

Beckett walked the leadoff man, Vladimir Guerrero, and yes, you read that right. It's usually more difficult to walk the free-swinging Vladdy than it is to win a year's worth of free gas from your local service station, but somehow, Beckett succeeded.

Scioscia immediately sent Howie Kendrick in to run for Guerrero. Subbing for your designated hitter in the seventh inning of a 1-1 game normally would be cause for everything short of a Constitutional Convention, but being that Guerrero is slower than Southern California traffic at rush hour, it barely raises an eyebrow around Anaheim.

Everybody knew the Angels were looking to fire the starter's pistol on their running game, and two batters later they did. And that's where it's soooo inconvenient that Varitek went and turned 37 on the Red Sox this summer.

In his prime, he averaged throwing out roughly 26, 27 percent of opposing runners attempting to steal on him. Now? This summer, he only threw out 13 percent: 108 of 124 opposing base stealers were safe.

That, combined with his .209 batting average and .313 on-base percentage (among the lowest of his career), caused Sox general manager Theo Epstein to trade for Cleveland's Victor Martinez at the deadline. Great offensive threat, that Martinez, but since arriving in Boston, he's thrown out only two of 19 runners attempting to steal (11 percent).

Kendrick waited a batter and then, zoom, he was safe at second on the first pitch to Juan Rivera. A batter later, Maicer Izturis delivered a tie-breaking single, then Izturis took off and stole another bag. He scored on Erick Aybar's triple, which chased Beckett and threw more dirt on the Sox.

Where they are now is just a few shovelfuls from being buried for 2009.

What can they do to get the offense moving?

"I don't know if I can answer that," manager Terry Francona said.

Big Papi has an excellent suggestion:

Hit the damn ball.