J.D. Drew struck out for the second out of the ninth inning last night. (Getty Images)

By Tony Massarotti, Boston.com Columnist

Purely for the sake of perspective, know this: since Terry Francona became manager in 2004, the Red Sox have won as many as seven games in a row on seven occasions. They have done so only four times since 2005. They did not have a winning streak as long as seven games during all of last season.

So as the Red Sox sit at 2-9 today, seven games below .500, maybe it’s time to recognize that this wretched beginning to their 2011 season already has done significant damage.

Can we all admit, without being accused of panicking, that this team is already in at least some measure of trouble?

Here’s the problem with baseball: you can play well and still lose, as we learned last night despite a solid pitching performance by Jon Lester. David Price was simply better and the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Red Sox, 3-2. Anyone with any measure of experience in baseball will tell you that the game is designed to be a .500 game, that the difference between a 97-win team and an 81-win team is a single victory in every 10 contests.

You go 6-4 during that span, you win 97. You go 5-5, you win 81. The line between mediocrity and championship contention is not nearly as thick as many would like to believe.

Admittedly, that is a rather simplistic way of looking at things, but you get the idea. At the moment, just playing .500 baseball, is a challenging proposition. Maybe, instead of trying to win 100 games, the Red Sox should start by trying to win two in a row, something that has eluded them thus far and might be trickier than anyone could have guessed. Just ask Daisuke Matsuzaka. Or, for that matter, Clay Buchholz.

Get the picture? If the Red Sox go, say, 14-7 over their next 21 games, that would put them at 16-16 with 130 to play. If the Yankees are something like 22-10 at the end of that stretch, the division immediately becomes an uphill climb and we’ll be talking about the wild-card race by Memorial Day.

At the moment, of course, 14-7 seems like a complete and utter fantasy. The Red Sox have lacked consistency in their starting pitching and have two more homers (seven) than Nelson Cruz (five). Meanwhile, the speedy tandem of Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury has anchored a relay team to produce fewer steals (four) than the immortal Sam Fuld (six), which is hardly what the Red Sox had in mind when they started running those ads on NESN.

We won’t rest.

Unfortunately, they might not win, either.

Here’s the bottom line, folks: it’s going to take a while for the Sox to dig themselves out of this hole, if they do at all. Currently, the Sox are 0-5 against the Cleveland Indians and Tampa Bay Rays, who are a combined 7-11 against everyone else. The Red Sox cannot beat anyone at the moment, and that suggests that the climb out of this hole will not be as simple as ripping off seven in a row.

Instead, this is going to take some time, during which the contenders and pretenders in the American League will begin to identify themselves. By the time we hit June and July, teams will begin adding pieces and getting better, and any improvements for the Sox will come in much smaller increments given what they already have invested in this club.

Think about it. Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, John Lackey and Buchholz are all under team control through at least 2014. Even if the Sox cut bait with Matsuzaka, are they going to forfeit prospects for a frontline starter, particularly after giving up three for Adrian Gonzalez? Maybe the Sox could get something for Jacoby Ellsbury, but the remainder of Boston’s starting lineup is either toting a big contract or generally untouchable.

What you have here is pretty much what you get.

Obviously, this team is badly underachieving. The question is why. The most logical explanation is that these Sox have a lot of new pieces, ranging from Gonzalez and Crawford to pitching coach Curt Young and relievers Bobby Jenks and Dan Wheeler. Meanwhile, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and Beckett are trying to come back from injuries. Jarrod Saltalamacchia is trying to prove himself. Ellsbury is seeking redemption, David Ortiz and J.D. Drew are lame ducks, Jonathan Papelbon is pitching for a contract. There is a brewing controversy at shortstop. Lackey is trying to prove that last year was the aberration.

That’s a lot of individual focus.

Meanwhile, here’s another thing to worry about: at the moment, the Sox have a little too much veteran complacency and not enough unproven youth. The best teams always have a little of both. The older guys are of great value during hard times because they maintain perspective, keep their cool, serve as anchors. The younger guys are equally important to those teams because they provide a measure of urgency, some of which is required to compete at the highest level of baseball played in the world.

Aside from Pedroia, which Sox regular currently appears to be playing as if his career depended on it? How about the pitching staff? Ellsbury should be one of those guys, but he hasn’t been. Maybe Ryan Kalish or Jose Iglesias could come up and give the Sox a much needed spark. Whatever the solution, the Red Sox, as a group, need to come to a very simple conclusion as they enter tonight’s series finale against Tampa with Toronto set to arrive here on Friday for a four-game weekend series.

Sooner or later, the Red Sox need to stop saying that it’s early.

They need to start playing like it’s late.