3 Red Sox most to blame for disastrous sweep at Fenway by D’Backs

That's not what the doctor ordered for the Boston Red Sox.

On the heels of splitting a series against the Orioles and then taking 2-of-3 against the Astros on the road, the Red Sox seemed primed to make a statement back home at Fenway Park this weekend against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Instead, they delivered an overall lifeless effort that resulted in getting swept. As a result, the Red Sox' playoff odds, per Fangraphs, dipped from 41.2% on Thursday before this series to 24.3%.

Boston isn't dead in the water but they just made their job much more difficult to try and get into the postseason. So which members of the organization put them in this spot against the D'Backs? There is no shortage of culprits. Until an ultimately meaningless home run on Sunday, Tyler O'Neill was dreadful when we saw him. Masataka Yoshida's baserunning folly on Sunday killed a potentially even bigger inning. Jarren Duran was lackluster. The bullpen continues to be a clench-your-teeth unit.

But if we're really honing in on this, we have to take a look at these Red Sox as the ones to blame for a massively ill-timed sweep at home against the Diamondbacks.

3. David Hamilton and Mickey Gasper

We're combining the two players who made starts at second base in this series, David Hamilton and Mickey Gasper, into one "person" to blame here because, well, the Red Sox simply got next-to-nothing from this duo as a collective.

Hamilton and Gasper to go a combined 0-for-8 in this series with the only time they reached base being on Sunday as Hamilton drew a walk. Gasper, who started in the 4-1 loss on Saturday, struck out three times in his four plate appearances, which is even worse to not put the ball in play at all in a game where offense was at a premium.

While you always expect the bottom of the order to be less reliable or effective than the top or heart of the lineup, the Red Sox have been buoyed by guys like Hamilton throughout the year stepping up and contributing. So when Boston's offense direly needed competitive at-bats and some production, for he and Gasper to come up almost completely empty was really a death knell for the club in this series.

2. Tanner Houck and Brayan Bello

Given that so much has been made about the futility of the Red Sox bullpen since the All-Star break (which we will unpack a bit more momentarily), the struggles from who are supposed to be the team's two most reliable starting pitchers, Tanner Houck and Brayan Bello, really stood out in this reverse sweep for Boston.

Bello had the ball in the series opener on Friday and it was clear from the jump that it was going to be a tumultuous outing. In the end, he gave up five earned runs across 5.1 innings, allowing seven hits but, more troublingly, walking four batters on the night. Bello has been wildly inconsistent this season, to be sure, yet you'd hope he'd step up in a big moment like this series against Arizona, which he failed to do.

Houck's was somehow even more painful, especially considering that the Red Sox offense came to play on Sunday, something that didn't totally happen with Bello. After Boston jumped out to an early 4-0 lead that seemed like just what this team needed, Houck blew up in the fifth inning, loading the bases immediately with two walks and a single in-between before two sacrifice plays and a single closed the lead to just 4-3. Then the wheels really fell off in the sixth inning when a single and a walk led to a go-ahead three-run home run from Eugenio Suarez. The end line: 6.0 innings pitched, six earned runs allowed, seven hits, and four walks.

We knew that starting pitching regression was always looming for the Red Sox. However, you would hope that guys like Bello, who was supposed to be the No. 1 this season, and Houck, who has actually been the No. 1 this season, would resist that. So seeing them actively hurt Boston's chances to win games in this vital series was less than inspiring.

1. Craig Breslow

As the trade deadline came, it seemed like the Red Sox fan base was pretty divided about the moves that Criag Breslow made at his first deadline. Ostensibly, he did address needs with the additions of SP James Paxton, RP Lucas Sims, RP Luis Garcia and C Danny Jansen (not to mention SP Quinn Priester, who has yet to see the bigs in Boston). So seeing some sort of activity and buying appeased some fans -- but there was also a contingency that belived Breslow should've done more and been more aggressive.

Now, it looks like the latter group of fans is right and it's now fair to look at a series like this and put blame squarely on Breslow. This team clearly needed more substantial starting pitching help and, while the Paxton injury made matters worse, not going to get a more attractive option looks like a mistake. Sims and Garcia have only played into the bullpen's struggles, unfortunately. But what was quite obvious was that adding Jansen was simply not the offensive upgrade this team needed.

Sure, Jansen checks the box of "right-handed bat" that the Red Sox were eyeing. However, his defense when at catcher has been an issue (which we saw when he didn't reel in a throw from Wilyer Abreu in a big moment on Saturday) and his bat has been pedestrian at best. He's not been a jolt but, rather, just another middling guy in the lineup.

In a series where it was clear the Red Sox needed a bit more offense, looking back and seeing Jansen as the organization's biggest offensive upgrade at the deadline is tough to swallow. And at the end of the day, all of this has to come back on Breslow.