I place the blame for this loss on Francona. For all his good points, and there are many, he never has been a really good in-game manager. Pinch-hitting for Cora in the 8th was lame. Putting Moss in to run for Ramirez makes sense most of the time, just not today. And with no one out and Crisp, a very good bunter, at bat, why not do a suicide squeeze? The worst thing that could have happened, and it was very unlikely, is a DP. With Crisp's speed that probably would not happen.

If Francona had not made the moves he did, then regardless of what happened with Crisp, he would have had Casey to PH for Varitek, and Moss to PH for Cora. I think the odds of getting that second run would have been higher playing it this way.

But this game also shows how bad it is to have only four position players on the bench. That works when the lineup is strong all the way through. It doesn't work when there are consecutive black holes in the lineup. Given the lack of clutch hitting that we've seen for the past 10 days, and the number of times the black holes have come up at critical times, the team might be better off with one less RP, and one more bat.