BOSTON — Took a detour across town last week on the off day of the Sabres-Bruins series

to check in at Fenway Park (hey, somebody has to do it, right?). Found the Red Sox in the

midst of an early-season crisis. I knew right away just by listening too. Ten minutes before

the first pitch of a game against the Rangers, the stadium PA was playing the old Beach Boys

ditty, "Don't Worry, Baby.'There's plenty to worry about in Beantown. When I got to town, the

Sox were coming off a four-game sweep at the hands of the Rays and had not held a lead in 48

innings.

They were 0 for their last 32 with runners in scoring position. Their pitching is spotty.

Victor Martinez can't throw any runners out — the Rangers stole nine bases off him in

the first five innings to tie a Boston opponent's record set in 1913.

And David Ortiz has again been horrible to start the season. So bad that Mike Lowell

pinch-hit for him Tuesday and Ortiz isn't hitting against lefties.

The Rays and Yankees, meanwhile, have been terrific. The Blue Jays have been a surprise.

Suddenly, the Red Sox look like a team in transition rather than a team in contention. When

Tampa Bay completed a four-game sweep on Patriots' Day, Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia

said there were games the team wasn't even showing up for.

I got to the park and General Manager Theo Epstein was holding an impromptu state of the

team in the first-base dugout and he wasn't holding back his feelings.

"It's certainly not the time for excuses or for sugar-coating it. We've played bad

baseball," said Epstein. "This is a bad stretch of play. When you do that at the start of the

season, it looks even worse.

"But I don't think this is about perception or optics, it's just what it is. It's bad

baseball. We haven't played well."

Boston had dropped six straight at home, its worst stretch since 1994, and was 1-6 at

Fenway for the first time since 1932. Its 4-9 start was its worst since 1996.

That's unfamiliar territory under manager Terry Francona, who said before the game he felt

"a sense of urgency" around his club. And remember, this is before game 14 of 162 in mid-

April. Such is life in Beantown with the Sox.

Epstein didn't dispute what Pedroia said either.

"Have there been some games where it looked like we didn't show up? Absolutely," he said.

"Do we know why it's looked that way? No. If we did, we would have fixed it."

The Sox won the night I was there as unheralded ex-Bison Darnell McDonald arrived from

Pawtucket to belt a game-tying home run in the eighth and a walkoff RBI single off the Green

Monster in the ninth to forge a 7-6 win over Texas. Afterward, I asked Pedroia how tough the

previous week had been.

"We haven't had very many smiles in a while in here," he said. "The biggest thing is we

don't want to bury ourselves in this division. The two teams leading us [the Rays and Yankees]

are playing pretty darn good. We need the fans behind us. It's not easy. Guys are just trying

too hard."

"A lot of us have been at this a long time so we know it's not been for lack of effort

around here," added veteran catcher Jason Varitek. "It's come from too much effort, trying to

do too much. It's not like we've had one through nine hitting .400. We have some people who

are going to hit. We know that."

The Sox went into the weekend 18th in the majors in batting and 23rd in runs. They were

22nd in team ERA with their big names all struggling.

Josh Beckett was at 5.26, John Lackey was at 5.63, Jon Lester was at 6.23 and Tim Wakefield

was at 6.38. Wakefield is heading to the bullpen to make way for Daisuke Matsuzaka.

The Sox had given up an incredible 37 stolen bases in 39 attempts — when no other

big-league team has yielded more than 19. They're learning what folks in Cleveland already

knew: Martinez can't throw anybody out. That's why the Indians were making him a part-time

first baseman.

"It's on me," Martinez said after Texas' nine-stolen base debacle. "I'm the one who has to

catch the ball and get it out there. I'm not doing it right now. It's a long season and I have

a lot of work to do."

The same can be said of the entire team.

Amazin' chaos

Mets observers are still trying to wrap their brains around what the Amazins did Monday

with Bisons first baseman Ike Davis, who was called up a scant half-hour before a game in

Coca-Cola Field and flown to New York to start that night against the Cubs.

The Mets need offense and that showed through loud and clear when they took them 20 innings

to score two runs and eke out a win over the Cardinals. They knew all spring Davis could hit

but they sent him to Buffalo. No big deal. Get the kid some seasoning. They also knew Mike

Jacobs probably wasn't the answer at first base, but after 24 at-bats they decide to send him

packing and call Davis up?

Either you develop Davis for at least a half-season in Triple-A or you start the year with

him in the big leagues. He was terrific in Buffalo but he did nothing the Mets didn't already

know about from watching him in Florida. And if you were going to put him in his first

big-league game on Monday night, how about telling him in Buffalo on Sunday, letting him fly

to New York that night and be ready for the next day's game?

Davis had taken batting practice and done his pregame work in Buffalo before getting the

word to rush out of his uniform, rush out of the park to the airport and play that night in

New York.

He told New York reporters when he got to Citi Field that he was in such a hurry that his

first paycheck of the season was left behind in Buffalo.

Chapman to face Herd

Looks like Aroldis Chapman, the Cuban phenom the Reds signed to a $30.25 million contract

over the winter, will be pitching here against the Bisons next weekend for Louisville. The

22-year-old lefty won his first Triple-A game Thursday against Indianapolis, and the current

rotation would have him pitching here next Sunday.

Chapman is 1-1 with an 0.60 ERA in three starts. He hit 99 mph on the radar gun Thursday,

going 5⅓ innings, and struck out eight. He has 18 strikeouts and 10 walks over 15

innings.

Yanks to meet prez

The Yankees will visit the White House and meet President Obama on Monday as part of a

three-day tour to celebrate last year's World Series championship. Prior to meeting the

president, the team will take the Series trophy on a visit to see wounded soldiers at Walter

Reed Medical Center.