01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, July 6, 2006

BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- When he stumbled badly in his first outing, the Red Sox were willing to give Jason Johnson a mulligan. After all, it had been 11 days since his previous start and there were adjustments to be made to his new teammates and surroundings.

But last night, Take II wasn't any better. In fact, it was disconcertingly the same -- early trouble, then an early hook. Like his debut, Johnson lasted only four innings. Once more, he gave up five runs in that span, creating a quick deficit for his new club. And again, he lost, stuck with his 10th defeat of the season, a 5-2 setback to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who won their third straight against the Sox.

Perhaps it's no matter of coincidence that Johnson has now lost six straight starts in two different uniforms and has won just once in his last dozen tries.

"It's something I'm going through," said Johnson. "I'm going to have get through this. I'm giving up runs early and it's tough to come back from something like that."

"He never had a chance to settle down," added manager Terry Francona. "From the first hit of the game, it seemed like he was in and out of trouble. There were a lot of baserunners and a lot of deep counts. Jason never really got untracked.

"You see flashes. When he throws that two-seamer down in the zone, you think there's a chance. But the consistency has got to be better."

In each of the first four innings, the leadoff hitter reached against Johnson, who walked four to compound the problem of allowing regular contact (seven hits in four innings).

Johnson won't get another start before the All-Star break, and at this point, it's questionable whether he'll be with the Sox when the second-half resumes. Kyle Snyder, in a holding pattern in Pawtucket, would seem a better option.

As if Johnson's performance wasn't bad enough, there was evidence that he was tipping his pitches out of the stretch. The Sox encouraged him to return to his full delivery to mask the problem, but that led to an embarrassment of another sort.

In the fourth inning, with Carl Crawford on third and two out, the speedy Tampa outfielder spied his chance and broke for the plate, swiping home. It was only the second straight steal of home in Tampa Bay history and the first against the Red Sox in six seasons.

"He stole home -- what do you want me to say?" snapped Johnson when questioned. "At the time, I felt comfortable out of the windup. Obviously, I chose the wrong thing."

"That's a tough thing to watch," said a glum Francona.

Julian Tavarez (three innings) and Craig Hansen (one inning) kept the Devil Rays scoreless from the fifth inning on, but the Sox couldn't mount much of an attack.

After a period in which they routinely collected double figures in hits and seemingly scored seven or eight runs as a matter of habit, the Sox have now sputtered offensively in the final week of the first half.

In the series opener Monday, they managed just two hits. Tuesday, they had only four hits in five innings off junkballer Casey Fossum. And last night, they had just four hits for the entire game.

"These things happen," said Francona of the cyclical nature. "It wasn't a lot of fun."

"I think," said Mike Lowell, "it's a combination of them making pitches and we're not swinging the bats. I really wish I knew. During the season, you're going to go into little streaks when you lose three in a row and it seems like no one is swinging the bat well. Or you win 12 in a row (as the Sox recently did) and it seems like everyone is swinging the bat well."

Tim Corcoran allowed just two runs over 6 2/3 innings. Jason Varitek's solo homer with one out in the second provided the first Boston run of the night. In the fifth, a leadoff double from Lowell, a groundout by Coco Crisp and a sacrifice fly from Kevin Youkilis produced the only other run.

The Sox had exactly one hit over the final four innings.