Red Sox have zero response

The Red Sox replaced the drama of Friday night’s bitter, 15-inning, 2-0 defeat with depression. They managed no hits until Jacoby Ellsbury broke up Sabathia’s no-hit attempt with a line-drive single to center with two outs in the sixth inning. The Red Sox managed four hits, all singles, silenced again after A.J. Burnett mastered them Friday.

“The last two nights, we’ve done nothing,’’ manager Terry Francona said. “We’re in one of those things right now. We’ve faced two really good pitchers and we’ve done nothing. Because of that, we’re sitting on a couple of losses here.’’

The slump has infected all of the Red Sox. They are playing with a tattered lineup - Jason Bay and Rocco Baldelli, two righthanded bats that would have been useful against Sabathia, sat on the bench with injuries - but their drought the past two days has been astounding.

The Red Sox are 8 for 76 in the past two games, and Ellsbury has four of the hits. Even typical cogs are misfiring; Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew are both 0 for 8. Aside from Ellsbury, the Sox batted .059 Friday and yesterday.

“You go through periods like that,’’ Pedroia said. “We’re not trying to get outs. Sometimes it doesn’t work out the way we’d like it to, but we’re going to grind. There’s a lot of heart on this team. Nobody’s going to quit. We’re going to play as hard as we can every day. I promise you guys that.’’

No segment of the Red Sox can claim innocence for their post-break slide, but the offense bears the largest burden. The pitching matchup yesterday favored the Yankees, Sabathia facing Clay Buchholz, who the hapless Orioles ousted after four innings last weekend.

Buchholz provided the kind of gutsy start that could have pulled the Sox out of their morass. Relying on his slider and a sharp two-seam fastball, he surrendered two runs despite grinding through 11 base runners (six hits, five walks). He did not scatter hits, but he scattered runs, one in the third and one in the sixth.