CLEVELAND -- Moments after the Red Sox' 3-1 loss to the Indians Tuesday night, David Ortiz turned in his chair and pointed to the center of the clubhouse.

"It was right over there," the Red Sox DH said. "I called everybody out."

What Ortiz did was step into the center of the visitors dressing quarters at Progressive Field following the Sox' Game 4 defeat at the hands of the Indians in the 2007 American League Championship Series and exclaim (in his own colorful way) that anybody who wore the Red Sox uniform was a "bad [blankety-blank]."

The result was the Red Sox coming back to win Game 5, and then Game 6, and finally the entire series on the way to claiming a World Series championship.

So, were such tactics necessary once again? When in Rome, right?

Sure, it's just four games in, but in some fans' minds this situation seems every bit as dire as that one-game-from-elimination scenario four seasons ago. No Red Sox team has started a season 0-4 since 1995, and it never recovered the rest of the way.

"No," Ortiz said regarding the need for any speeches. "We'll be OK."

He elaborated, "When you’re facing this kind of situation, you definitely want to get the first one out of the way. And keep on moving. That’s how things get started. Everyone’s trying. Probably some of us are trying a little too hard, but that’s baseball. Things happen. 

"You’ve got to just keep on playing. That’s what I believe. That’s why we don’t have 17 games [as] in the NFL or 82 in the NBA. We’ve got 162 so you can figure things out, because this is a hard game to play. You’ve got to go day by day. Everyone tonight has to wipe their mind off and come back tomorrow.

"Everyone’s got a great attitude. Everyone’s coming down early and getting ready to play. Things just aren’t happening right now."

The moral of the story thus far is this: Everybody understands that the Red Sox have the potential to be what Ortiz mandated all who wear the uniform be back in '07 -- bad blankety-blanks. And every player Tuesday night seemed as steadfast in the belief that their talent was going to ultimately win out as they did prior to playing in from 9,025 (the smallest collection of fans to watch a Red Sox game since 2000).

The problem is that they haven't found the key to unlock their inner-bad-blankety-blank-ness.

“There’s too much history here," Josh Beckett said. "Everybody here knows how to win. We’ve got to figure it out. Nobody is going to come out of the blue and feel sorry for us and help us out. We know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to go out and execute.”

Beckett offered a perfect example of what the Red Sox are facing.

The Red Sox starter Tuesday night was the one who led the way in '07 in allowing Ortiz' words sink in, going out and dominating the Indians in Game 5. There was no bigger bad blankety-blank on the planet that night.

Talk to Beckett following his five-inning, three-run outing in the Sox' most recent loss and you still get the feeling he is on the verge of putting that cape back on. He's healthy. He has a pitch (the changeup) that has turned into a legitimate weapon (throwing it 27 times with an average velocity of 87 mph). And his stuff, while not as explosive as in the heat of Houston, hadn't disappeared.

But, right now, something is missing.

In a tangible sense, what was standing in the way of Beckett in his initial start of the season was the ability to locate when he needed to and not fall behind. But he didn't and he did. The result was a 35-pitch third inning, which was followed by frames of 23 and 24 pitches, respectively.

Beckett threw 27 of his 47 pitches in the final two frames out of the strike zone, falling behind in half his at-bats. He'll be the first to admit, that isn't the kind of stuff that is going to put a 'S' on your chest.

“Like I said last time, the adjustments that we made, they’re becoming more easy for me to get to. I don’t revert back to other things. That being said, you can’t throw 100 pitches in five innings. You’re not going to survive very long," he explained.

Beckett isn't alone.

This was supposed to be the lineup that tore up American League pitching like no other before it. Not happening. 

The collection of excellence is hitting .186 (second-to-last in the majors), with the third-worst OPS (.565) in the big leagues. Of the starting nine, six are hitting .188 or worse.

After the latest loss, the hitters were suggesting they hadn't executed a Red Sox-style approach, jumping at too many early pitches from Cleveland starter Josh Tomlin. And they were right, seeing an average of 3.79 pitches per plate appearance to drop their majors-best average to 4.13 for the young season.

But, as they say, the first sign of addiction is denial, and at least this group admitted it was coming out of its identity. 

“The guys that were here before, they’ve won," Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. "The guys that we got have won. We all know how to win. you can’t keep a good man down for long, that’s about it.”

Pedroia's right. But, through an angst-filled four games, something is keeping them down. It could be a major league-worst 8.16 team ERA. That aforementioned horrific team offensive production. Or perhaps the lack bravado, which has been siphoned somewhat by a litany of hard-to-digest numbers, most notably the four losses in as many games.

The Red Sox have to start showing they are the bad-blankety-blanks everybody had identified them as before being introduced to the regular season. Because if they don't, even Ortiz-esque reminders won't be enough.

“It’s not a lot of fun," Francona said. "I don’t think anyone is going to feel sorry for us. We just need to come out and just play the game right and things will work out. But if we feel sorry for ourselves, that won’t help.”