BOSTON -- If Sunday could've signified a launch point – for a couple of underperforming individuals in particular, and the club collectively – its first seven and a half innings couldn't have played out much more perfectly for the Red Sox.

In their sixth attempt to move over the .500 mark, Boston held a one-run advantage. That edge came courtesy of Clay Buchholz, who began with the worst earned run average in baseball, but delivered his best start of the season in limiting the Rays to just two runs over seven innings. And Adrian Gonzalez, whose power had been missing before he lifted a three-run homer to give the Sox their one-run lead.

Heck, things were going so swimmingly on New Hampshire Day at Fenway Park, Gonzalez' blast nearly pelted the same left-field pole that Charlestown's own Carlton Fisk made famous nearly 37 years ago. And even after squandering a bases-loaded threat in the eighth, Boston still had the game in the hand of their closer – the closer who'd sealed nine straight chances – in the ninth.

But, true to form, the 2012 Red Sox found a way to turn a potential breakthrough into a speed bump.

When Alfredo Aceves yielded a two-run blast to Sean Rodriguez, and the Rays swiped a 4-3 win, the Sox fell to 0-6 when they've had a chance to leave the park with more wins than losses — and accordingly lost another opportunity to forget about what's happened over the first quarter of the season and start moving toward actual goals instead of simply trying to crawl out of the gutter they stumbled into early.

Last year, that opportunity proved useful. After finally getting on the good side of even, they won nine of 11, and eventually 23 of 31. This year, however, shedding that weight from their shoulders hasn't been nearly so easy, a reality never more evident than Sunday – when a win also would've moved them out of the American League East basement for the first time this season.

“I would've liked to have that one,” manager Bobby Valentine sighed after. “Pretty close.”

It would've been one to like, too, based on how it developed. For his portion of the afternoon, Buchholz worked somewhere between encouraging and excellent, the quality of his changeup offsetting the velocity that's still missing from his fastball, and his command much improved on what it's been to this point.

Entering with an even 1:1 ratio, Buchholz struck out six against just one walk, and induced 11 swings and misses. It was his second-most in his past 15 starts, and plenty good enough to get the game to a position where Gonzalez had a chance to be hero.

That chance came after David Ortiz walked and Kevin Youkilis singled to start the seventh, putting the go-ahead run at the plate in the form of Gonzalez, who kept his head down on a changeup, went with the pitch beautifully, and sliced it into the corner of the Monster Seats.

After just the second homer he's hit at Fenway this season, and just the fourth at home since the 2011 All-Star break, the even-keeled Gonzalez reacted to the blast more emotionally than he does most – though he said that had nothing to do with the swing. He was simply excited to have given the Red Sox the lead. To have given Buchholz a chance to get a win he deserved. To put Boston in a position to have a positive record. To light the wick and potentially launch this $173 million rocket.

It all set up perfectly, and as Valentine said, was pretty close to coming true. But not close enough. Again.

“It's frustrating now,” Gonzalez said, “but we'll keep playing hard and we're going to get over that hump and get going from there.”

-----------------------

THE STATE FLAG flying atop the stadium, a Granite State flavor dominated the pre-game festivities. The highlight of New Hampshire Day was the presentation of $1,000 scholarships from the Red Sox Foundation to 35 high school seniors, who also received red bats – some from team CEO Larry Lucchino, some from principal owner John Henry – after they and their collegiate intentions were announced to the crowd.

Introducing the students was Dave O'Brien, of the Red Sox Radio Network, who was one of several Granite Staters to take the field before the game. Among the others were honorary bat kids Abi and J.P. Blasi of Brookline; “State your case” runners-up Joel Harrington of Peterborough and Richard Hanson of Nashua, as well as contest winner Kim Woodward of Concord, who earned the right to throw the game's ceremonial first pitch transforming the cafeteria of the capital city's Dane School into a little Fenway; representatives from the Hanover Fire Department, who presented the colors; Meaghan Tinsley, a 14-year-old from Epsom, who sang the national anthem; and residents from The Webster House in Manchester met with Sox players before giving the command to “play ball.”

Before the fifth inning, Specialist Coreen MacDonald, of Dover, was saluted from atop the home dugout as the Sox paid tribute to America's military.

-----------------------

VALENTINE said before the game that Ryan Sweeney could be activated from the seven-day disabled list as soon as today. The obvious way to create room on the roster is to demote Che-Hsuan Lin, who has been little more than a defensive replacement during two big-league stints – though matters figure be more complicated from there.

Cody Ross (broken foot) was walking without his boot or a limp Sunday, while Darnell McDonald (oblique strain) was playing outfield on his rehab assignment. Effectively, that means Daniel Nava, Marlon Byrd and Scott Podsednik can essentially consider the next two weeks something of a tryout.


Dave D'Onofrio covers the Red Sox for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. His e-mail address is ddonof13@gmail.com.