The Red Sox were completely unprepared for Game 1 of the Wild Card series

All of this uninspiring play was only potentially made palatable by one overarching theme: After losing their previous series in New York at the end of August — And with it the tiebreaker over the Yankees — the Red Sox essentially made a deal with the baseball devil in which they (apparently) made their return trip this week their sole priority. In short, they put the results of games in the first four weeks of September on the backburner in favor of getting healthier and being ready to go for September 29th.

Well, September 29th came, and they were woefully unprepared for the very matchup they were supposedly studying up on for the last month. They looked flat, overwhelmed, and like a team who didn't belong on the stage.

Just as importantly, they looked like the same team they've been all month, where they not only rank dead last in runs scored with just 71, but are 18 runs behind the next closest squad.