Air of futility to the offense

David Hernandez had a reputation for being a fly ball pitcher, but it reached an absurd level by the time the Sox had first cycled through the order.

In the first inning, Jacoby Ellsbury skied to right. Dustin Pedroia floated one to center. There were popups, too, with Kevin Youkilis shooting one high and foul to third base.

In the second, David Ortiz popped to third. The only player who didn’t make an out in the air the first time through the order was Jason Bay, who struck out swinging. At that point, it dawned on Pedroia, who told Jed Lowrie, “I don’t think we’ve hit a ground ball.’’ J.D. Drew popped to second to end the inning.

In the third, Adam LaRoche flied to left. Lowrie did the same. George Kottaras, catching in Jason Varitek’s stead, fittingly shot one straight up behind the plate, fouling out.

Ortiz flied out or popped up four times altogether - Hernandez got him for three - and all he could do was chuckle.

“I believe that the outfielders, they don’t need to catch no more fly balls for the rest of the week,’’ he said.

In seven innings, Hernandez managed 17 of his 21 outs in the air, and the simplest explanation seemed the most fitting.

“Bad hitting,’’ Pedroia joked.

Funny, but at the same time frustrating, seeing balls fall short at the warning track or sail into the gap only to get tracked down, or sky 300 feet up but only 25 feet out.

“It was one of those days where you put good swings on the ball and bad things happen,’’ Ortiz said.

Since the All-Star break, the Sox have been trying to heat up offensively. Entering the game, their .218 average since the break was the lowest in the American League. Before that, they had the league’s third-most-potent offense (465 runs). Before yesterday, the 23 runs they’d scored in the eight games since the break were the fewest of any AL team.

“I think rather than put it into last month or last week, I think if we just stay in the present - because [Saturday night] was very good - if we show up [tonight] playing Oakland concerning ourselves about what [Hernandez] did today, that’s not a very good way to go about it,’’ said manager Terry Francona.

It seemed like the Sox had established a building block Saturday night, hanging seven runs on the Orioles, five on starter Jeremy Guthrie, but the momentum didn’t carry over. Relying essentially on his fastball, Hernandez held the Sox hitless the first three innings, and by that point they trailed, 4-0.

“Every day we’re trying to win the game,’’ Pedroia said. “We didn’t really want to come out and score two runs, but it happens. It’s baseball; we’ll come out [tonight] and hopefully we’ll play better.’’

“You’ve just got to turn the page,’’ added Ortiz. “Come back and keep playing, that’s it. There’s nothing you can do about it.’’

There was a flash in the fifth inning, when Lowrie, with runners on second and third, launched a ball deep to right only to see it die at the warning track. What looked for a second like a three-run homer was instead a run-producing sacrifice fly.

“I hit it about as well as I could right now,’’ Lowrie said. “It’s not easy to hit balls out to right here, but I thought I hit that one good enough.’’

Ellsbury shot a ball into center to lead off the fourth for the Sox’ first hit of the game, and he was 2 for 4. It was his third straight multihit game after he’d scuffled coming back from the break, and also inspired Pedroia.

“It’s only a matter of time until he got hot, and we all got hot,’’ Pedroia said. “It’ll happen.’’

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.