Things might have gone so differently for the Red Sox over the final two months of the season.

Picture hard-throwing Kerry Wood coming out of the bullpen in the eighth inning to set up for Jonathan Papelbon instead of forcing the Sox closer and Daniel Bard to overextend themselves in the depth-challenged bullpen.

Wood has put together an 0.56 ERA in 16 relief innings for the Yankees with 18 strikeouts since he was acquired from the Indians. The Yankees paid the Tribe $500,000 or a player to be named for Wood, and they put themselves on the hook for $1.5 million of his remaining salary for this season.

That kind of pitching could have eased the pressure off both Papelbon and Bard and given manager Terry Francona another bullpen arm he could count on instead of the likes of Dustin Richardson and Robert Manuel.

Imagine Scott Podsednik patrolling center field and chasing down flyballs that have confounded the cast of characters playing there for the Red Sox. Chances are a natural center fielder like Podsednik would have had a better chance at making one of those plays than rookie Ryan Kalish, who is playing out of position in center with Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron out of commission.

If either of those two players had been added over the last two months, it's plausible that the Sox could have avoided one or two of the ninth-inning Papelbon meltdowns that have left Boston's dugout thunderstruck at how quickly things have fallen apart.

It doesn't take a trained baseball mind to see that a couple of spare parts could have helped the Sox stay in the race after the makeshift roster fought so courageously to keep pace with the Rays and Yankees, teams that are both on pace for just under 100 wins.

It's not impossible that Boston could have had either Wood or Podsednik at the trade deadline. But the Sox went primarily with youth and crossed their fingers hoping that some of their injured players would bounce back strongly.

Instead, Ellsbury took a tumble in Texas and went back on the disabled list, Cameron finally had season-ending surgery, and the Sox front office began selling off relievers like Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez rather than adding anything to the bullpen.

It may never be fully known whether Theo Epstein and the Sox front office staffers simply decided they weren't going to go after those players, or if the Sox ownership was unwilling to spend the additional money and forage deeper into the luxury-tax territory.

RAYS 14, RED SOX 5: The Red Sox pitching staff surrendered five home runs, and Boston hitters managed only a pair of hits against David Price over the first six innings. Darnell McDonald slammed a solo homer in the eighth inning, and Victor Martinez had two hits in the loss that effectively slammed shut Boston's hopes for the postseason. Boston is 7 1/2 games behind Tampa Bay for the wild-card spot.

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