Heinous Red Sox loss to Rockies just confirmed trade deadline fire sale like no other

Boston Red Sox fans were feeling good in the sixth inning of the team's series-opener against the Colorado Rockies. Willson Contreras finally broke out of a slump and Caleb Durbin continued his torrid few weeks to put Boston up, 2-0.

Like the Sox, the Rockies are one of the worst teams in baseball — on Monday night, they struck out nine times and only logged four hits until the eighth inning. But that eighth frame is where things started going horribly wrong for Boston.

After a quick, three-batter seventh inning against Tyron Guerrero, Colorado saw Garrett Whitlock quite well. The Rockies pieced together four singles but couldn't score a run — Ceddanne Rafeala made a perfect throw to cut Edouard Julien down at the plate and Willi Castro was tagged out in no-man's land between second and third base.

But the Rockies continued their single streak into the ninth inning when Aroldis Chapman took the mound. Two singles and a perfect bunt by Cole Carigg loaded the bases and Jake McCarthy cleared them with a triple. Jarren Duran, who's played otherwise excellent defense this year, twice bobbled the ball in the outfield. The Red Sox's 2-0 lead disappeared in an instant as not even Chapman could save the day. They were walked off by baseball's lowliest club.

Red Sox became certain trade deadline sellers after embarrassing breakdown, walk-off loss to lowly Rockies

The latest gut-punch only served to reinforce what Red Sox fans already know: a fire sale is coming. Despite the Red Sox sitting relatively close to a Wild Card spot for weeks because the American League is so weak this year, nothing can save this team. There's no sense in adding at the trade deadline when Boston, the team with the fewest wins in baseball, could get a haul for its impending free agents instead.

The June 22 loss was yet another example of the Red Sox's historically weak offense. Jake Bennett put on a show as the starter, pitching six, scoreless, four-hit innings with a career-high nine strikeouts, but Boston gave him no run support. The Red Sox didn't score until his final inning on the mound after going down in order three times in the earlier innings.

The Sox's current road trip represented a golden chance for them to possibly crawl back near contention. After surprisingly taking two out of three games from a first-place Seattle Mariners team, they should've had an easy series against the Rockies, who gave them every chance to win. Instead, Boston kept up its usual offensive antics, going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and leaving seven men on base.

Throughout the season, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and the rest of the front office have largely maintained a positive front. Breslow has told reporters as recently as recently as the first week of June that he coveted a right-handed bat ahead of the trade deadline.

But the Rockies slapped Boston in the face with a dose of reality — one righty bat isn't going to make the Red Sox better. It's time to commit to selling at this year's trade deadline, there's no coming back from being walked off by the Rockies.

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