Carl Crawford and Marco Scutaro are playing on the most disappointing Red Sox team in years. (Wikimedia Commons)

The Boston Red Sox signed Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford in the offseason. Josh Beckett, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia were finally all healthy at the same time. The phrase, “best team in baseball” was thrown around an awful lot.

Fast forward to September. 

In exactly two weeks the Sox went from first place in the AL East, to hoping they can hang on to second.

Now, after a crucial series that could have saved the season but instead saw Boston drop three of four to the Tampa Bay Rays, Terry Francona’s men are forced to rely largely on the failures of their opponents to help them see the postseason.

The Red Sox stand in the lead for the AL Wild Card, after the New York Yankees clinched the AL East Thursday. The Rays, who lost both games of double-header with the Pinstripes Thursday, are 2.5 games back in the Wild Card race.

Boston’s decline has come largely at the hands of spotty pitching.

The Sox started the season with a rotation expected to rival that of the Philadelphia Phillies, whose rotation is pretty much universally accepted as the best. Beckett was injury-free, John Lackey and Jon Lester were ready, Daisuke Matsuzaka had something to prove and Clay Buchholz was coming off an extremely impressive 2010 effort, his first full year as a starter.

Only Beckett, Lackey and Lester have pitched a full load of games and only Beckett and Lester have done it well. Lackey’s ERA is 6.49. 

Meanwhile, the other side of the bat has been just as disappointing. 

The signing of Crawford, touted as the best of the offseason save that of Cliff Lee, has resulted in a batting average of .255 and 11 homeruns—even Jarrod Saltalamacchia has more, with 16.

Crawford’s performance has been so dismal he actually apologized to fans via an ESPN Boston blog post.

“I just want to say I’m sorry for the year I had,” Crawford wrote. “Hopefully when we get into these playoffs, I can be the real Carl Crawford that I know I am.”

Anytime a baseball star has to apologize in September, it’s code red. 

The fact that the Red Sox are still in the hunt of as Thursday is largely thanks to luck. A Tampa win here and a Yankee loss there and they’d be smack in third place.

As evidenced by the Tampa series, these Sox can’t seem to win when it matters, a problem that is sure to arise again if they do reach the postseason. 

As Peter Abraham queried on the Boston Globe’s Extra Bases blog, “Is there a point to all this?” The way Boston has played of late doesn’t instill a lot of confidence that it could beat, well, anyone in a divisional series. 

Even Boston great Curt Schilling said, "I don't want them to make the playoffs because I don't think they have a chance to go anywhere."

Then again, this is the Red Sox. Stranger things have happened in Beantown.

___________________________

Reach Kate by email, or follow her on Twitter.