Well, my take:
Sox offense was pretty bad today, but Meche was on. Sometimes you run into a hot pitcher. What I found inexcuseable was the fact that Meche crossed into triple digits in pitches in the 8th inning. If a pitcher is dominating you, you must take pitches, work counts and get his pitch count up. Against the Royals, you must try to get into the pen. That pen is awful and the sox didnt take advantage of it. The bottom of the order went 2 for 10 and did not work counts.
As for the pitching, the sox relief was okay, 4IP 2ER 4H 0BB 3K. Not too bad. The starting was awful. Schilling looked injured or old, or both. He wasnt finishing his pitches. His fastballs were tailing over the plate and his splitter was staying high. And his velocity was sitting around 90-91 with as low as 88 and up to 94 when he really muscled up. He also walked 2, one with the sacks packed, which is extremely un-Schilling like. Overall, it could have been just a bad game, but that was an awful start for him, reminding me of what he looked like to end the yr.