Every Penny counts

ATHLETICS 8, RED SOX 6 Since Theo Epstein became general manager of the Red Sox in 2002, one of his hallmarks has been handling the ebbs and flows of the season without overreaction. Sometimes you streak. Sometimes you slump. The key is seeing the big picture. That job has quite possibly never been more difficult than it is right now. After dropping their eighth game in 12 tries last night, 8-6 to the Oakland A's, the Red Sox find themselves 3 1/2 games out of first place in the AL East. The Sox have lost a staggering 6 1/2 games in the standings in the last 12 days, and with the trading deadline looming tomorrow at 4 p.m., it may no longer be good enough to say the team is merely hitting one of those inevitable midseason troughs. It may be time for change. ``We've got to suck it up and play,'' second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. ``We've got to win games. There's (62) games to go. We've got to start winning.'' Last night the problem boiled down to Brad Penny's first 20 pitches. Adam Kennedy blasted his initial offering of the night into the Monster seats and it was all downhill from there. Two singles, two walks and one Rajai Davis double later, it was 5-0 and the Red Sox hadn't even come to bat. They gave it their best from there, bringing the tying run to the plate in the eighth (pinch hitter David Ortiz popped up), and the winning run to the plate in the ninth (J.D. Drew grounded out sharply), but it wasn't meant to be. ``Every team goes through stages like this,'' said left fielder Jason Bay, who struck out three times, the last time with two on in the ninth. ``Other than the beginning of the season we haven't had too many scuffles. The second half isn't where you want that to happen, but it's kind of happening right now.'' For three months, the Red Sox were considered the least-flawed contender in the American League, but chinks in the armor have emerged. With Tim Wakefield out, the starting rotation has struggled to find a foothold behind the 1-2 punch of Josh Beckett and Jon Lester. Penny wasn't the guy last night, particularly in the first inning. The A's came out sitting fastball and even though Penny had good velocity in the upper 90s, he lacked command of his breaking stuff and location on his heater. ``Tonight my offspeed stuff wasn't great so it's basically pitching with one pitch,'' Penny said. ``They swung at a lot of first pitches. Even that home run to the catcher (Kurt Suzuki, in the sixth), it wasn't a bad pitch. It was a fastball and he was geared up for it. I have to start locating my offspeed stuff a little better, and that will come again.'' On a positive note, the Red Sox continued to show signs of emerging from their offensive funk by recording nine hits, including Jacoby Ellsbury's sixth straight multi-hit effort. But outside of Mike Lowell, they once again lacked the big hit. Lowell, serving as the DH, blasted a three-run homer in the first and laced a run-scoring single in the ninth as part of a five-RBI night, and that was pretty much it for the offense. ``We didn't hit early on (in the losing streak) and in the last three games we haven't pitched that well,'' Bay said. ``Right now we're not firing on all cylinders. It's not one thing. There's no quick fix or magic pill. We just have to keep grinding. ``I don't think we're going to base an entire season on the last week or week and a half. We're a lot better ballclub than we've played. We're still in a pretty good spot. We just have to play better.'' The Red Sox are certainly better than they've played recently, but are they so much better that they can stand pat and remain a contender? Epstein has until tomorrow afternoon to come up with an answer. - jtomase@bostonherald.com