There is one obvious talking point about last night’s gut-wrenching 4-2 Red Sox loss, which is manager Terry Francona’s decision to pitch to Sox nightmare Evan Longoria. Assuming that (presumably one-sided) argument has been hashed, here are a few other things to take away from that game:

• Daniel Bard is not a cyborg sent from the sent from the future to strike out American League batters. He’s a rookie with less than three months experience in the major leagues, and he showed last night he’s not automatic, even if he spent the past month convincing everyone he is.

  Bard had struck out 23 batters and walked none in previous 14 innings without allowing a run before last night. He had earned more responsibility in the Red Sox’ bullpen, and Francona gave it to him, sending him in to finish off the seventh inning, which he did, and then leaving him to face Longoria to lead off the eighth.

  Bard gave up a home run, and it might have affected him – he walked Ben Zobrist, his first walk in more than a month. He went to field Willy Aybar’s sacrifice bunt. He never set his feet and made a rushed, sidearm throw that missed Victor Martinez by an incredible margin; Francona compared the rolling ball in the rightfield corner to a hockey puck that had been iced, moving along with no one around.

  When Longoria hit that home run, Bard pointed his right index finger into the air, a signal that betrayed his expectation. He had to figure that any of his pitches coming off of a hitter’s bat – even one that cracked as loud as Longoira’s – would be harmless. He figured Longoria had hit a fly ball; it went about 420 feet. It was clear the blast pierced his confidence a little.

  Of course, Bard was not going to go all season without allowing another run, and maybe it’s a coincidence that his first bad outing in a month – it was going to happen sometime – came last night. But it could be a bad sign that in his biggest moment yet, in the tensest game the Sox have played this year, Bard nearly unraveled before he stuck out B.J. Upton.

  Remember how unfazed Justin Masterson was by the playoffs last season? If Bard is going to fulfill a similar role for the Red Sox this season down the stretch, he’ll have to put last night behind him, and then prove he is ready for the big moments.

• Jon Lester figured out the Rays. Lester lost twice against the Rays in the last years American League Championship Series, including Game 7, when he pitched very well but not as well as Matt Garza. Lester also lost to them twice this season. In his four previous starts against the Rays, Lester was 0-4 with an 8.18 ERA.

  Last night, Lester struck out 10 and allowed three hits in six-plus innings, and the only mistake that stood out was the final pitch he threw, his 110th. Lester had came out for the seventh having thrown 109 pitches, most of them “high-intensity,” he said – to a team fighting off pitches, working counts, in a nip-and-tuck game. Lester rose to the moment, expect when he came too far inside on Carlos Pena and hit him in the hands. Out he went, and in came Hideki Okajima.

  For a team that seems to have a lot of moving parts right now, Lester is a constant. Since June 6, Lester has a 2.17 while striking out 10.1 batters per nine innings. Nine of his 11 starts since then have been quality starts, and he has averaged about 6 2/3 innings per start.

  One key to his two-month stretch has been not allowing home runs. Lester has not allowed a longball in his past 56 2/3 innings.

• Kevin Youkilis may stay hot for a while. Over the weekend, Youkilis hit a line-drive single into centerfield, right over second base. That simple hit could easily be lost among everything else he did in Baltimore, like smacking a game-winning home run and reaching base in 13 consecutive plate appearances. That simple hit, though, is what stood out to Francona.

  “When he hit that ball over second base, to me, that shows something,” Francona said. “He hadn’t squared up a lot of balls to rightfield for a while. That shows he’s starting to cover the plate again.”

  Last night, Youkilis led off the second inning already on fire. He saw three pitches and then blasted 92-mph fastball, sinking at his knees, toward centerfield. Upton scaled the fence, but watched the ball sail well over it. It was Youkilis’s 20th home run of the season and his 13th hit in his last 17 at-bats.

  When Youkilis hits in bunches, he maintains his patient approach. In his next at-bat, Youkilis fell behind 0-2, took three sliders for balls, fouled off a curveball, and took a fastball for ball four. After he walked, Youkilis had reached base in an astonishing 15 of 17 plate appearances.

  The prolific stretch, while extreme, was not a pure fluke. The approach Youkilis has mastered – hit the ball to all fields, spit at bad pitches – allows him to amass incredible hot streaks. He began this season 16 for 32 with four walks.

  “You see some guys that get so hot because they’re free swingers and they’ll go through periods where they hit everything,” Francona said. “But Youk has a chance to prolong because he won’t swing at balls.”

• The Red Sox need a pitcher tonight because their entire bullpen was used. I listed a few candidates in today's Globe. Not certain who it will be, but you can rule out Michael Bowden.

• The Red Sox still can’t figure out Tropicana Field. They are 2-12 at the Juice Box since the start of last season. One reason is that Longoria plays for the team that plays there. Longoria has been a monster against the Red Sox. In 11 games, he has 24 RBI and seven home runs with a .370 batting average. Maybe it would be a good idea to walk him every time he comes to plate, even if the Sox did strike him out four times last night.

  “Hopefully tomorrow,” Youkilis said, “he remembers how to strike out.”