Remember Friday night, when it seemed like the Red Sox had it all figured out. Well, they didn't. Far from it, in fact.

This isn't a reactionary take from watching this team lose two straight to the Orioles, with Sunday's 7-4 defeat serving as the most recent 2.7-game (prorated) slap in the face.

The discomfort stemmed from how Ron Roenicke and his team landed with this 1-2 record. In a nutshell, the Red Sox really, really didn't seem like a group that had gotten their heads around what they're dealing with. You can point to the woe-as-us riteof passage that comes with not having Chris Sale and now Eduardo Rodriguez, leaving the Sox with Nathan Eovaldi and a lot of finger-crossing. But a lot of the misery that we witnessed at Fenway Park was avoidable, even with the roster's current lot in life.

"Yes. No doubt," said Roenicke when asked if these games felt more important now than in normal season. "Its more important now than saying you had a regular season and you know you have six months and maybe you dont play that well for the first month. You know youre still in it. You just need to get hot at some point. Now up through the first month you really cant be down that much. Hopefully well have a good series against the Mets and head out on the road."

The easy first place to point is at Martin Perez and Ryan Weber, the two starters who put the Red Sox in holes they never could dig out from. Perhaps both go on and figure out what ailed them in getting whacked round Saturday and Sunday. Maybe Perez stops nervously pacingin the back of the mound on every pitch with a runner on base. And there is a chance Weber starts putting balls on the ground instead of in the air closer to the clip that won him the No. 3 job.

But the mentality that has gone into constructing this semblance of a starting rotation is at the top of the heap when it comes to the aforementioned discomfort. At some point you have to prioritize track record and stop banking on the whole "if we make an adjustment here and a tweak there we're going to make everyone forget that guy had the highest WHIP in the majors last year" mentality. Sure, you might hit on a few. This is how the likes of Marcus Walden and Ryan Brasier found their way. But the process of uncovering diamonds in the rough doesn't have to take place in the most important stretches of an every-game-counts-a lot season.

When Roenicke sent in Dylan Covey to keep the game within a three-run deficit Saturday it represented a microcosm of this dynamic.

Because of his contractual arrangement, the Red Sox needed to keep Covey on the roster to begin the season even though he hadn't thrown a pitch for his new team in Spring Training 2.0. Chaim Bloom was plucking the pitcher off the waiver wire as one of his many "you-never-knows" even after the pitcherhad done nothing to earn a spot on the team and was coming off an 18-appearance 2019 with the White Sox that resulted in a 7.98 ERA. OK. We get it. Even though Brian Johnson has had major league results when not injured or sick, and had thrown the ball fairly well in both spring trainings,the Red Sox wanted to prioritize the promise of the former first-round pick.

But bringing Covey (who had already beendetermined by the Sox to be sent down well before he stepped on the field Saturday)in when there was still a chance and you had a bullpen chock full of proven commodities? The Red Sox approached this like Spring Training 3.0. There was no other way to look at it.

And then there was the overallapproach taken during these two losses.

Here is the reality: You can't treat these games like ones played in a 162-game season.

For instance ...

- If you have an opportunity to pinch-hit or pinch-run for Kevin Plawecki with two other catchers on the bench, you take that opportunity. Saturday, Roenicke chose not to.

- When the starting pitcher is clearly not missing any bats and note exhibitinggood-enough command while watching the pitch count pile up, you take him out sooner rather than later. Instead with the Red Sox trailing by two heading into the fourth, Weber was left in to surrender a game-changing three-run homer off the bat of Anthony Santander with a boatload of relievers at the ready in the hosts' bullpen. This season, and with these 30-man rosters, you simply can't wait around.

- Rule of thumb: When a player hits a home run -- as Mitch Moreland did Saturday -- he should automatically be in the lineup the next day, regardless of who is pitching. Teams have to prioritize hot streaks over analytics. The Red Sox didn't,sending out Michael Chavis at first base for another series of uncomfortable at-bats while leaving Moreland in the on-deck circle to end the game.And, no, thisisn't apples to apples when Alex Cora expertly rested the likes of Hanley Ramirez and Mookie Betts in days after they hit homers early in the 2018 season. Completely different dynamic and calendar.

- You can't afford to worry about saving pitchers, even if an opener represents the next day's starter. It was striking to not see anyone warming up when Marcus Walden put runners on first and third in the seventh inning and the Red Sox only railing by two. Walden got out of the jam by striking out Renato Nunez to end the inning, but if Nunez had extended the inning you would have had a pitcher on mound trying to still keep things close, living life in a very uncomfortable pitch count and with no sign of a replacement because of the bullpen's inactivity.

- Going back to analytics and matchups ... don't. Prioritize the hot hand. Roenicke pinch-hit the struggling Andrew Benintendi -- who has now struck out in five of his 10 at-bats -- for Kevin Pillar. That was the same Pillar who was 1-for-3 on the day and is hitting .500. Meanwhile, Alex Verdugo was allowed to hit for the final at-bat of the game, which normally would make sense considering he was facing a right-handed reliever. But two innings before Verdugo could be seen seemingly in a lot of discomfort following a ground out, bending and stretching for quite a while. Roenicke said after the game it was diagnosed as cramps. Yet after watching that last at-bat -- when Verdugowas significantly tardy on three straight 93 mph fastballs, including a third and final offering which blew him away -- it hard to believe he was of enough sound body to put the Sox' best foot forward in that spot.

- Down two. Still in the game. Your closer hasn't worked all weekend. Bring him in for the ninth. Instead, Roenicke chose to go with another one of the unknownand unproven in Austin Brice despite the fact Brandon Workman had been warming up. The result was an additional run tagged on by the Orioles in the ninth. Again, this early on with this shortened seasonit would seem prudent to air on the side of some certainty while figuring out the rest in not-so-pivotal situations.

And then there isthe players' approach.

Mental performance coaches should be working overtime this season trying to get these guys' minds right. Rafael Devers is overswinging like never before, chasing Ball 4 three times before striking out to end a threat in the eighth. Benintendi? He has never looked worse. These guys have track records and should be OK. But you can discount the added pressure they are putting on themselves knowing the window to turn things around is so small.

This is perhaps the biggest work-in-progress Red Sox team we have seen, well, in many of ourlifetimes. That's why it'stime to work smarter, not harder. That would make these final 57 games a whole lot easier to digest.

Original post:

Bradford: Why it was so uncomfortable watching these Red Sox - WEEI