The Red Sox are a desperate team and manager Terry Francona is willing to do most anything to make the final weeks of the season relevant.
The alternative is running a glorified tryout camp for young players and watching pending free agents try to burnish their résumés with meaningless statistics.
The chance Francona took yesterday was asking Jonathan Papelbon to get the final five outs to preserve a victory against the Chicago White Sox.
It had been a year since Papelbon was put in that situation. But with setup man Daniel Bard having already been used, Francona went to his closer early in the eighth inning.
Papelbon has had problems getting three outs this season. Five proved impossible as the White Sox scored four runs in the ninth inning to escape Fenway Park with a 7-5 victory.
“We felt pretty good about ourselves and we walk away about an hour later with a loss,’’ Francona said. “Yeah, it hurts.’’
The Sox have lost six of their last eight games and fallen into third place in the American League wild-card race, still 7 1/2 games behind the Rays but now a half-game behind the White Sox.
The White Sox had not swept a series against the Red Sox since 2000 or a series in Boston since 1991.
Tampa Bay arrives at Fenway Park tonight for a three-game set that could determine whether the final weeks of the season have even a faint spark to them for the Sox.
“It doesn’t look good,’’ catcher Victor Martinez said. “This has happened before to us.’’
With the Red Sox up, 4-3, Papelbon left two runners stranded in the eighth inning. The lead grew by a run in the bottom of the inning when Adrian Beltre doubled, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on a ground out by Bill Hall.
But the final three outs were elusive. Papelbon walked Alex Rios with one out. With Andruw Jones up, Rios stole second. Jones struck out and the crowd of 37,570 stood in expectation of a victory.
Disappointment followed. Carlos Quentin hit a blooper into shallow center field. Rookie Ryan Kalish should have played the ball conservatively, but he attempted a diving catch and the ball squirted past him.
Quentin took second base as Papelbon failed to cover the bag.
“He got caught watching. Everybody’s going after it and he needs to get back to second,’’ Francona said. “That ends up being huge.’’
Papelbon disagreed with his manager, saying he thought Quentin would have been safe regardless.
Ramon Castro followed with a single to center, driving in Quentin with the tying run. For Papelbon (5-6), it was his seventh blown save of the season.
“I couldn’t finish the job, basically,’’ he said.
His pitch count mounting, Papelbon walked Alexei Ramirez. Francona finally took him out, Papelbon having thrown a career-high (as a reliever) 48 pitches.
