No debate (or mercy): Yanks blow out Sox

NEW YORK -- The Red Sox saw their worst season in generations come to a humiliating conclusion on Wednesday, as the Yankees decimated them in a 14-2 blowout win that witnessed the Sox achieving several forms of horrible history. 

The Sox finished the year with a 69-93 record, their worst since going 62-100 in 1965. The Sox also finished in last place for the first time since 1992 and for just the second time since 1932. The team's season-ending eight-game losing streak was its longest since 2001. 

Daisuke Matsuzaka was shelled for five runs in just 2 1/3 innings, bringing to an end a horrible year that saw him go 1-7 with an 8.28 ERA. In the process, he set a record for the highest ERA by a starter in franchise history. The dreadful performance likely represented the final start of his Red Sox career, as the right-hander is eligible for free agency after six tumultuous seasons in Boston that included stretches of dominance as well as considerable struggles. 

And the Sox offense once again proved pitiful. The team finished the year with three or fewer runs in each of its last nine games, the third-longest run of such futility since at least 1918 and the longest such stretch since another nine-gamer in 1976. 

While the Sox' season came to a humiliating end, the Yankees clinched the American League East division title as well as home field advantage through the ALCS. Both Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson blasted a pair of homers, as New York finished the season with a franchise-record 245 homers. Cano also added two singles and finished the night 4-for-4 with two homers and a career-high six runs batted in. 

With the season concluded, the Red Sox must now formally declare their intentions with Bobby Valentine (with several major league and industry sources characterizing his dismissal as an inevitability) and then commence the challenging process of reconfiguring and retooling in hopes of creating a competitive team going forward. However, mindful of how far the Sox have fallen, GM Ben Cherington suggested that it would be premature to say whether the Sox would once again be positioned to compete in 2013. 

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