I don't write this as a defense of Shelton today, though maybe in some sense it's still circling back to my general defense of him on the season (which is that the players fight hard for him + he often makes the decisions needed + he has gotten way more out of the roster than Cherington and by extension Nutting put in).
To be clear, I think that he directly contributed to this loss, in the same way that Cruz did in Houston and Holderman did on Friday. Holderman deserves an enormous amount of blame as well, but as I pointed out before, I just really can't make sense of the decision in this spot today, and sticking with him after the two walks. I also would point at the IKF bunt as foolish -- that was the time to go for the throat and crank the pressure up.
However, as much as today was a gut shot (at least for me, today was way more brutal than Friday), I think it's also just a reality check on the fully mediocre nature of this team. It has been the biggest advantage this season because it has prevented any real large slide, but it's also been the biggest weakness because the margins for error are always so thin. We are almost a perfect .500 team, as even the run differential hovers around even.
Pitching can win championships, but not if the offense isn't good enough to get you there or cover up over mistakes. And this offense is still bad. It has to be the highest priority to bring in better players over the winter, and even if that happens, we'll have to pray for pitcher health, above all Skenes.
But I think that kind of heartbreaking loss is what being a mediocre team that could still be in the playoffs really brings. This team is not good enough. I don't think that the playoffs are definitely out of the cards after today, but this team is not good enough. We're going to have to rattle off 5 or 6 wins in a row at some point, and even that might not be enough to overcome the seesaw nature of win series lose series win series lose series etc.
I'm actually thankful for the off day tomorrow for once because I can't stomach thinking more about baseball after this weekend.