He was all that was left.

Jonathan Papelbon was the Red Sox' fail-safe, the one element of this team that had been immune to the organizational about-face. Sure, the Sox had suffered through a 5-14 record in September, and found themselves clinging to a two-game lead wild card lead with eight games left. But this was still the same Papelbon.

Well, after the Sox' 7-5 loss to the Orioles Tuesday night, all elements of the roster have officially been touched by the uneasiness of this most uneasy of pennant races.

For the first time since May 9 -- a game in Minnesota that finished with Dustin Pedroia hitting .237, Hideki Okajima earning a win and the world still buzzing about the death of Osama bin Laden -- Papelbon blew a save.

"I let my team down," the closer said. "I’ll shoulder that, I’ll take full responsibility and I’ll be ready to go tomorrow. That’s it. It’s plain and simple. This is the time of year – we can’t think about tonight. We have to go out there tomorrow and keep grinding away. There’s nothing we can do except that I’m going to take this, put it on my shoulders, and let everybody know this is on me. Nobody else."

Unfortunately for Papelbon and the Red Sox, "this time of year" is about as an inopportune time to experience a hiccup in a remarkably relatively hiccup-free season as there could be.

Yes, the Rays lost, allowing for a portion of panic to be put on the back-burner. But whatever anxiety was pushed aside thanks to the lack of change in the standings resurfaced at least somewhat because of whom was standing in the in middle of the Red Sox' clubhouse pleading for responsibility for the defeat.

Going by what had transpired up until 9:30 p.m. or so on the 154th game of the regular season, there was no relief pitcher in baseball better suited to close out what was the Red Sox' latest be-all, end-all meeting with the Orioles. This was a pitcher in Papelbon who hadn't allowed a run since July 16, or 21 straight outings. He had also converted 25 straight saves, the second-longest save steak since Tom Gordon saved 43 in a row to end the 1998 season.

There was a caveat: Papelbon was being asked to come on in the eighth inning for the first time since May 9, and just fourth occasion that he has entered prior to the ninth this season.

This time the situation called for the closer to retire the inning's final two outs after Daniel Bard departed having left runners on first and second, the Red Sox leading by a run and the Orioles' carrying one out.

"No, not different one bit," said Papelbon of the dynamic of pitching in the eighth. "You know I’m called on and whenever I’m called on I  have to go out there and do my job. And tonight for me it boiled down to execution and I got to be able to put guys away 0-2. For me this game is on me. We were put in a situation where the team needed me. I didn’t come through. I don’t want to hear anything tomorrow about Tito bringing in guys early, the lineup not coming through or anything else. Because this game is on me. My job when I’m called on is to go out there and finish the game. I didn’t do that, so this game’s on me and I take full responsibility for that."

Even with the two runners aboard, it wouldn't have been a huge leap of faith to suggest Papelbon was going to escape the jam.

Just one of the five runners the reliever had inherited this season had scored, and the next two batters, Chris Davis and Nolan Reimold, were a combined 0-for-10 with four strikeouts against Papelbon.

The closer predictably fanned Davis on three pitches, and then promptly got to 0-and-2 on Reimold. But the Baltimore outfielder managed to catch up to a 96 mph fastball with the two strikes on him, rifling it into left field to load the bases. (It should be noted that all 14 of Papelbon's pitches were fastballs up until the final pitch of the inning, with all the heaters clocked at 95 mph or better.)

"Any time Pap comes in the game, I don’t expect anything less from him," Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said. "There’s not one guy that’s more prepared than him, one guy that wants the ball. He’s a competitor and I think everybody, including myself, felt good with him in there."

Even with the bases full of Orioles, and Robert Andino at the plate, the odds were in Papelbon's favor.

For his career, the Orioles' second baseman was 4-for-15 with two walks with the bases loaded, which didn't come close to touching his opponent's track record in such situations. Coming into the at-bat, Papelbon had struck out all seven of the hitters had faced this season with the bases loaded, and it was no fluke. For his career, the reliever had allowed just four hits in 47 at-bats (.085), walking two. It was the best opponents batting average against in such situation among qualifying big league pitchers over the past six seasons.

But with the count 3-and-2, Andino lined a 97 mph fastball into right field, scoring a pair and putting the Red Sox in yet another uncomfortable situation.

"There's not anybody in this clubhouse that does not want to win. That does not want to go the playoffs and make a playoff run," Papelbon explained. "Are we getting some bad breaks here and there? Yeah. But at the same time we have to go out there and slow the game down and play one inning at a time. That's all we can do. We can't go home tonight and hang our heads. We have to come out tomorrow with the same intensity and be ready to play, be ready to win. Whether I have to come in the seventh, eighth or ninth. Whether Daniel has to come in in the sixth. Or we need a starter to go 'X' amount of winner. Or we need a guy to come off the bench and get a big hit. We have to start putting things together, grinding it out and keep moving forward. We can't think about the past.

"There's no reason for us to sit here and say the walls are crumbling down. That's not going to happen in this clubhouse. Every single person in this clubhouse has been through adversity. Adversity in times like this is what is going to make us better, period and point blank."

He was the last man standing. Now all the Red Sox can hope is that, with seven games remaining, they somehow manage to all now find a way to rise in unison.

"There ain’t going to be anybody or anything or any team that’s just going to lay down for us," Papelbon said intently. "We have to go out there and keep grinding and that’s it. We have to play one pitch, one out at a time. Like I said, tonight’s ballgame is on me. I take pride in the team leaning on me and tonight I wasn’t able to get it done. Poor execution on my part and like I said, we have to come back tomorrow and keep grinding it out. So I take full responsibility. You guys can write every headline you want about me not going out there and getting the job done, because it’s on me."