OK, it’s early. But for how much longer?

The Red Sox suffered another loss on Tuesday in which the team remained out of sync. One night after a brutal pitching performance was to blame in a 16-5 loss to the Rays, the Sox again dropped a decision to Tampa Bay, this one by a 3-2 count (recap) on a night when the team simply couldn’t produce a big hit in a key situation.

The Sox are now 2-9, in last place in the AL East. They are five games behind the first-place Orioles and four games behind the second-place Yankees.

The bravado is leaking out of the clubhouse, getting chiseled a bit more with each defeat. Their uneven play can no longer simply be shrugged off.

“This situation is such a surprise. You didn’t expect it, so you worry about it a little bit,” admitted outfielder Carl Crawford. “We know it’s going to be an uphill battle, but guys are up for the challenge.

“It’s a little shocking,” he added. “We definitely didn’t think we’d be in this position right now, but since we are, we just have to do what we have to do to get back on top.”

With 151 games left, it would be silly to suggest that the Sox are getting to the point of must-wins. The standings can be flipped in a matter of a week or two.

The Sox are mindful of that notion when taking stock of their plight.

“The best thing is that we’re still in mid-April. You can easily get yourself out of this hole at this time of the year. You don’t want to be in this position in August,” said first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. “It’s still really, really early and we’re going to bounce back just fine.”

Still, the team’s poor season-opening stretch cannot be easily dismissed, either. Sox officials have observed at times that the AL East is a division that is particularly unforgiving of struggles. One bad 15-game stretch, they have noted, can sabotage a season.

Moreover, history isn’t terribly kind to teams that get off to the kinds of starts that the Sox are enduring. No team since the 2001 A’s has made the playoffs after beginning the year with as few as two wins in their first 11 games. Meanwhile, ACTA Sports noted that of the 72 playoff teams since 2002, just three have won three or fewer of their first 10 games.

Even so, it is possible to make too much of the Sox’ slow start simply because there isn’t a wealth of games to hide their struggles. Ultimately, the timing of the struggle should mean less than the simple fact of the struggle.

The issue shouldn’t be whether a team can survive a bad opening stretch of the season, but whether it can endure a stretch at any time of the year along the lines of what the Sox are currently experiencing. In that respect, the Sox can find solace from many recent world champions.

The 2010 Giants endured a 1-9 run in the middle of last year.
The 2009 Yankees went through a 4-9 stumble early in their championship run.
The 2008 Phillies went through a 1-9 pothole; they beat a Rays team that endured a seven-game losing streak that season.
The 2006 Cardinals had two separate eight-game losing streaks.
The 2005 White Sox had a 1-8 spell.
The 2003 Marlins endured a 4-14 rut in May.
The 2002 Angels suffered through a 3-12 stretch that started in the first week of the season.

So, seven of the last 10 champions endured ruts along the lines of what the Sox are currently experiencing. A period of struggle is not uncommon. (The 2004 and 2007 Red Sox and 2001 Diamondbacks were the three championship teams that never suffered through a stretch of the season that was comparable to the current 11-game struggle by the 2011 Sox.)

That said, the struggles of those eventual champions rarely went on for much longer than the skid that the Sox are amidst. The axiom that pennants cannot be won in April, but they can be lost in the season’s first month, hovers over the team’s performance.

Notably, the Sox do not feel that success is beyond their reach. That is not merely blind faith in the team’s talent base. Several members of the club rued the fact that they seemed to be hitting balls hard but right at people.

Players expressed frustration that they have not, to date, been able to get their offense and pitching in sync. On days when the team has shut down its opponents, the lineup has been silent; in contests when the bats have rattled off more than a few runs, the pitching has been shelled.

“We’re just not putting everything together. One night it’s the pitching, one night it’s the hitting. Some nights it’s both,” noted hard-luck loser Jon Lester. “Nothing right now is clicking for us.”

But after they took two of three games from the Yankees over the weekend, the Sox felt like Tuesday’s defeat represented the continuation of improved play. True, over their last five games, the Sox are 2-3, but two of the losses have been by one run, in games when the Sox have managed a combined two runs in support of Lester.

“As bad as it’s been or seems, it’s not that bad,” said outfielder Mike Cameron. “It’s not that far away.”

For the Sox, that had better be the case. Right now, their poor start falls into the category of surprising yet not insurmountable. But if the Sox do not regain their footing soon, they may find their season of great expectations in serious peril.

It remains early. No team in the AL East has asserted itself as a juggernaut to the point where the Sox will be breathing only fumes by the end of the season’s first month.

Nonetheless, thanks to a stumble at the start of the season, the Sox’ margin for error has been whittled significantly. While the forecast is not yet gloomy, the clouds on the horizon are creeping ever closer.