Ninety-nine games in and the primary concern for the Red Sox remains unchanged. And as the trading deadline draws nearer and nearer, the primary question now is whether they have any intention of doing something about it.

After holding a 2-1 lead over the wretched Seattle Mariners in the eighth inning yesterday, the Red Sox self-destructed in an eventual 4-2 loss that opened the door for some rare second-guessing. And before Terry Francona becomes the object of scorn for turning to Hideki Okajima over the fire-balling Daniel Bard, let’s get to the core of the problem.

The Red Sox don’t have enough reliable relievers, particularly when they play close games on the road. Whatever it is that has prevented general manager Theo Epstein from getting bullpen help, it may now be costing the Red Sox their season.

"We brought [Bard] in [for] the seventh just because who’s coming up," Francona told reporters after the loss. "There’s a couple of reasons. One is if he has a real quick inning, we’re going to send him right back out. Then the other one was to help Okie, rather than flip-flop then. Both were going to have to probably pitch, unless Bard has a real good inning."

OK, so let’s break down that as much as we can, beginning with the knowledge that Bard ranks among the league leaders in appearances and relief innings. On this trip alone, he has pitched in five of the seven games, including three of the four against the Mariners. The Red Sox monitor the workload of their pitchers as carefully as any team in baseball, and Bard almost always is limited to one inning of work.

Entering the seventh, Seattle had the Nos. 9, 1 and 2 hitters due up – Jack Wilson, Ichiro Suzuki and Chone Figgins – with No. 3 hitter Franklin Gutierrez behind them. Given that reality, Francona went to Bard. (This shows how little confidence he truly has in Okajima.) The obvious idea was to get Bard through the only decent part of a very soft Seattle lineup, leaving the rest of the majors’ worst offensive attack for the weaker part of the Boston bullpen.

After making it through the seventh allowing only a two-out single to Figgins – Gutierrez struck out to end the inning – Bard took the mound for the eighth and allowed a bloop single to "cleanup" hitter Jose Lopez on an 0-2 pitch. (Ugh.) Francona subsequently went to Okajima, who compounded his own ineffectiveness by looking like a rattled young quarterback on a pair of bunt plays that triggered Seattle’s decisive three-run rally.

Under the circumstances, it’s easy to wonder why Okajima was in the game at all. But the bottom line is that Bard cannot pitch two innings in every outing, which is really the far greater problem for a Red Sox team that was supposed to be efficient – read: excel in run prevention – especially in the late innings.

"He looked to third, looked like he had time," Francona said of Okajima’s reaction on the first of two bunts. "Beltre got back, and it started out looking good. He didn’t make the throw to third, and we always give him the option: If you’re not sure, get an out. Then from there, I don’t know if he didn’t have a handle. It didn’t look like there was a lot of urgency. They’re trying to give you an out, and you don’t take it, a lot of times good things don’t happen after that."

Indeed, the Red Sox went poof.

Consider this: in one-run games on the road this season, the Red Sox are 7-11; at home in such affairs, they are 10-5. The obvious difference is that closer Jonathan Papelbon is far more likely to be used in the late innings of a tie game at home than on the road, if only because Francona (like every manager) holds out his closer for save situations away from Fenway. In the Red Sox’ two late-inning losses on the current trip – yesterday and a 5-4, extra-inning defeat to Oakland on Tuesday – Papelbon did not pitch. That essentially left Francona with one reliable reliever (Bard), negating any advantage the Red Sox might have over weaker teams.

With Boston's lineup in its current state, opposing bullpens are more effective, too.

If Francona is to be second-guessed at all for yesterday’s loss, maybe it should be for failing to use Papelbon anyway. Rather than going to Okajima, maybe Francona could have asked Bard and Papelbon to combine for the final nine outs of the game. Of course, doing so would have meant that Papelbon, too, would have pitched in three of the series’ four games. In the first game of the series, Papelbon was required to throw 30 pitches after Manny Delcarmen imploded and Bill Hall botched a double play.

No matter how you slice it, the bottom line is that the Red Sox don’t have enough relief pitching, particularly at a time when their inability to score is obvious. The two bullpen games they have lost on this trip are the difference between a three-game deficit and a five-game deficit in the wild-card race. The bullpen remains the one area of the club that has not been ravaged by injury this season, and Okajima’s ineptitude (along with that of Ramon Ramirez) has been a huge problem.

Yes, the pitchers have let them down.

But are the Red Sox going to just keep trotting them out there until they fall completely out of the race, or are they going to at least try to do something to help?