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CLEVELAND -- Over six months, the Boston Red Sox developed a tried-and-true formula for winning. They bashed opponents into submission, scoring nearly 13 percent more runs than any other American League team en route to a division title. But over six days, they lost their identity. And by Friday night, after the mightiest offense in baseball folded meekly again in a 6-0 loss to Cleveland Indians ace Corey Kluber in Game 2 of the best-of-five American League Division Series and stepped to the cliff's edge of the season, the Red Sox had become wholly unrecognizable -- even to themselves. "We had a lot of guys the last couple of games [in the regular season] feeling it out, everybody, me included," second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. "I think we lost who we are -- we're the Boston Red Sox. We should dictate the tempo of the game and how everything should be played. The last couple of days, they did that and we didn't."  Indeed, the Red Sox scored four runs in Thursday night's series-opening loss before getting shut out by Kluber and two relievers, neither of whom was named Andrew Miller or Cody Allen, the Indians' twin relief pillars from Game 1. The Sox went 13-for-65 (.200) with a whopping 22 strikeouts in the two games. Game 2 marked only the eighth time in 164 games that they didn't get an extra-base hit.
For as much as co-aces Rick Porcello and David Price let them down in the last two games, the Red Sox were always going to go only as far as their bats would take them. And from Pedroia (1-for-8, four strikeouts) and AL MVP front-runner Mookie Betts (1-for-6, two strikeouts) to Xander Bogaerts (1-for-8, four strikeouts), Jackie Bradley Jr. (0-for-6, five strikeouts) and even retiring slugger David Ortiz (1-for-8), those bats have been eerily quiet. No wonder Ortiz seemed more disturbed than ever as he stomped out of the clubhouse and headed for a bus to the airport and possibly the final game of his career Sunday at Fenway Park. "Should I be happy?" Big Papi said. "We're getting our asses beat. Nothing to celebrate. It's part of the game, man, but I know we're better than that." Surely, some credit must go to the Indians' pitchers. In the opener, Miller and Allen combined to throw 80 pitches and record 11 outs, turning out the lights in relief of starter Trevor Bauer. Kluber shrugged off a late-season groin injury to dominate Game 2, giving up three hits and striking out seven in seven innings and far outpitching Price. But the Red Sox were "jumpy," according to manager John Farrell, and overeager in Game 1, chasing pitches out of the strike zone. Farrell thought his hitters had a better approach against Kluber, "but still not much to show for it." "We just haven't performed to our capabilities," Bradley said. Said Betts: "I just know that we haven't hit in all aspects of the game. It feels like we need to just get something going. Somebody is going to have to do it. We don't know who." Farrell, for one, doesn't trace the team-wide malaise to the final week of the regular season, when the Red Sox scored 17 runs and lost five of their last six games on the heels of a season-high 11-game winning streak. But Pedroia acknowledged they relinquished momentum last week. Maybe they peaked too early. Maybe they got cocky about how well they played on the road after the All-Star break and decided it wasn't important to have home-field advantage in the division series. Regardless, there's no doubt they let their foot off the gas after pulling away in the AL East. For New England sports fans, it's slightly reminiscent of last year's Patriots, who lost four of their last six games, failed to get the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and had to go on the road for an AFC Championship Game loss to the Denver Broncos. "We're trying to have good at-bats," Pedroia said. "They've thrown the ball well. I haven't gotten any pitches to crush. It's not like the guys we've faced we're going to be teeing off. Those are great pitchers. We just have to make adjustments and find a way. "Obviously our back is against the wall. There's zero room for error. You find out a lot about yourself and your team when you're in situations like this." Right now, the Red Sox would settle simply for getting back to what made them so good over the last six months. After hitting themselves into the playoffs, they must now hit their way into staying there.
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