Red Sox give way to the Patriots via the all-too-common route: Absent pitching and defense

No team crashes in the second half like the recent iterations of the Red Sox.

The cosmos lined things up just so for the New England sports fan on Sunday afternoon. A channel flip from the celebratory scenes of the Patriots’ Week 1 upset win in Cincinnati landed people on NESN just in time to see the 111-loss Chicago White Sox score five runs in the ninth inning.

Ideally, a bounce to ‘Fifth Quarter’ or Tom Brady’s Fox debut quickly followed. They weren’t even a terribly photogenic five runs — five hits, an intentional walk, a sacrifice fly, and a Wilyer Abreu throwing error that Connor Wong deserves a chunk of blame for behind the plate.

“Did the Red Sox get caught looking forward to their series against Baltimore and the Yankees?!” mused hyperbolic White Sox play-by-play man John Schriffen on NBC Sports Chicago.

Oh, John. Frostbitten fingers have more feel for their surroundings.

Chicago, historically bad as they are, has only been swept in 21 of 46 series this season. (Yeah. Just 21 sweeps!) The Red Sox are in the slim majority by not doing so, and did deal them a 38th series loss despite a relative tussle — tied into the seventh on Friday, and with Andrew Benintendi making things interesting in the late innings Saturday.

Benintendi against the Red Sox since The Franchy Cordero Trade in February 2021: 17 for 43 (.395/.435/.581, 1.106 OPS), with five doubles and Saturday’s home run. Also, non-fun fact: Don Orsillo never called Benintendi with the Red Sox, the outfielder debuting the August after NESN moved on from my favorite former Springfield Indian.

No regular Red Sox watcher thought looking ahead was among the top five problems Sunday. Nor that anything that happened felt out of the ordinary.

A team which hasn’t scored consistently for three weeks managed two runs at home off Chris Flexen, whose White Sox had lost his last 21 appearances — 20 actual starts, an MLB record, plus a pseudo 21st. Beyond Wong’s 3 for 4, the Red Sox had five hits.

A team whose pitching holes have become impossible to avoid made Richard Fitts its ninth MLB debutant this year. (Luis Guerrero became the 10th cleaning up that ugly ninth inning.) Seven of the 10 have been pitchers, which is right up there with the White Sox only being swept 21 times.

The 2024 Red Sox have had plenty of their version of uplifting wins at the Bengals. Even if public opinion is often a mess, the story usually ends the way it did on Sunday’s other channel.

“We didn’t do much today offensively,” manager Alex Cora told reporters. “They put the ball in play, found some holes, and obviously, the ninth inning, that happened. . . . It’s a tough one.”

Triston Casas’s fielding error, which turned Chicago’s go-ahead runs in the sixth to unearned, was a tough one. September, again, appears it’s going to be a tough one.

It’s the “now what” portion of the season, where “Patriots!” is a viable answer for the rest of the New England baseball slate.

The story, again, is that at least it took us this long to get here. And that the pattern remains maddeningly the same.

As the Globe’s Alex Speier smartly pointed out over the weekend, no team crashes in the second half like the recent iterations of the Red Sox. And it is always the pitching coming off the rails.

Fitts was the first pitcher called up to make a debut start by the Red Sox since Brayan Bello on July 6, 2022. In that same span, the Reds and Guardians have each called up eight, and the Dodgers and Diamondbacks seven.

Ideally, Bello, Tanner Houck, and Kutter Crawford will form the foundation of a starting five during a renaissance across the next three years. (Houck, should he not sign long-term, becomes a free agent after the 2027 season. Crawford hits the following winter.)

Foundations require a house above them, though, and the Red Sox will either need to shift their ideas on spending, find a bargain who worked out better than Story has — they viewed him as a $200-million player they got for far less, recall — or deal from their areas of strength.

The latter seems the most likely, and the outfield seems the logical place to start thinking. Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela will both garner Rookie of the Year votes. Jarren Duran figures to appear near the bottom of some MVP ballots. Roman Anthony is freshly anointed the game’s No. 2 prospect by Baseball America, the best of four Red Sox properties in the magazine’s top 26.

Breslow and Co. have had their year to assess the franchise’s cupboard. They did some nibbling, allowed the team to entertain contention, tried (and failed) to supplement. This winter, as we’ll keep saying while it drives forward, is when it’s time to see his actual plan. (And, to a degree, the constraints in which he’ll operate.)

Maybe the Red Sox play a little spoiler down the way, with the Yankees and Orioles separated by just a half-game atop the division, and the inside-the-playoff-line Twins coming to Fenway the weekend after next. With nine of the last 12 against the Rays and Jays, a fight for third in the East might be all that’s left to actively pursue.

It’s something, just like Sunday’s Patriots victory was something. Even if it all ends up amounting to not much, while we wait for the young cavalry to really arrive.