Now tangled in their worst offensive meltdown of the season, the Red Sox have a one-game deficit to show for their eight wins in eight tries against the Yankees. No wonder the mood in the visitors clubhouse in Arlington, Texas was so somber after Tuesday night’s 4-2 loss to the Rangers.

“I ain’t got (anything) to say,’’ the typically congenial David Ortiz said to reporters. “What am I going to say?’’

There is little that can be said for a club that in four straight losses has scored a total of eight runs.

Josh Beckett nobly fell on his rhetorical sword - “This one definitely falls on me. I think the right person got the loss.” - but few would agree with him. A lineup that is routinely praised by baseball pundits, most grandly by those pundits who watch from a distance, has tumbled into a horrific mass slump.

A general manager should never be prompted by the heat of the moment, but Theo Epstein would have to have the soul of a robot not to feel at least a tiny urge to shop around for a bat. Apparently, Brad Penny remains the first chip Epstein would toss onto the table, particularly with Tim Wakefield landing on the DL with a sore back.

Clay Buchholz? Not unless a team is willing to dramatically overpay for him.

Tags: Brad Penny, Clay Buchholz, David Ortiz, Josh Beckett, Red Sox, Theo Epstein, Tim Wakefield