By BRENDAN McGAIR

Sports writer

PAWTUCKET – As the season spiraled out of control, the dynamic of the Pawtucket Red Sox drastically changed.
There was a tinge of promise permeating throughout the clubhouse back as recently as early July. Young guys like Mark Wagner, Bubba Bell, and Aaron Bates had moved up from Double-A Portland. The trio joined up with already-in-place pitchers Kris Johnson and Michael Bowden and would soon receive company in Josh Reddick, Adam Mills, Junichi Tazawa and Dustin Richardson. Pawtucket was undergoing a heavy-duty youth movement that was exciting while at the same time offered the potential for danger.
The hazardous part became clear when all the Portland promotions collectively slumped and showed little signs of breaking free of their malaise. From a team standpoint, Pawtucket compiled a 16-42 record between July and August. That ghastly win-loss total resulted in shakeups, both in the standings and the way manager Ron Johnson wrote out the lineup.
The prolonged droughts by Bell, Bates and Wagner – none of the three sported a batting average better than .220 – resulted in the parent club shifting gears in terms of seeking out reinforcements.
The Red Sox, as proud as they are of the drafting and developing machine that’s produced several keystones, were not about to go “young” at the highest level. Turning over a new leaf might be acceptable at Triple-A level, where the term “pennant race” is hardly ever uttered, but not in baseball-obsessed Boston.
Management realized Pawtucket did not possess major-league ready contributors. That grew increasingly apparent with each passing veteran addition. From Brian Anderson to Chris Duncan to Chris Woodward to Paul Byrd to Joey Gathright, the PawSox became a walking contradiction.
The intention of exposing the young players to newfound experiences was still very much in place. Yet the primary mission became to get the players whom the Red Sox acquired, via waivers or trade, prepared to pay eventual dividends for the highest member of the baseball food chain.
The massive amount of noise the PawSox made through call-ups, players passing through waivers, and releases couldn’t cover up the fact that they were losing at an alarming rate. Pawtucket was assured it wouldn’t finish in last place over the weekend, a small victory in a brutal two-month stretch that saw Johnson & Co. migrate from a team heavy on promise to a standard Triple-A operation, one that houses players equipped with varying degrees of major-league service time.
No person had a better front row seat of Pawtucket’s metamorphosis than Johnson, now officially at the helm for five seasons.
“We went into the season anticipating to see a lot of (Jonathan) Van Every, (Jeff) Bailey, heck even Nick Green was going to be (the starting shortstop). Then we had call-ups, injuries, and subpar years,” the skipper said. “Combo all that with the massive amount of young players brought up and the fact that those young players earned their promotions. By doing that, they also earned the right to fail some. They have earned the right to go through adversity.
“When you look at their numbers, I’m sorry, you’re not going to win a lot of games against teams like Scranton, who have veteran guys. It’s just not going to happen.”          
As the losses seemingly blended together and the team batting average dipped to historically low levels, Johnson found himself adopting a battle cry. The mantra was designed to alleviate some of the sting that surfaced on a far-too-common basis.
“Find a way to win every night, regardless of what the final outcome reads after nine innings,” was the stance Johnson subscribed to.
“You have to have something like that in place when you have a young group,” he further explained. “It’s not ‘We got beat 9-4 or 3-0.’ The norm is that young guys will struggle at this level.”
It remains to be seen if any type of fallout will come from a coaching standpoint on a team that has dropped 80-plus contests (hitting coach Russ Morman’s job security figures to be tied in with the cut-and-dry fact the PawSox barely broke .230). Speculation aside, Johnson knows the prime decision makers on Yawkey Way are aware of the summer swoon and how Pawtucket arrived there.
“I remember the first speech when Theo Epstein (became Boston’s general manager). He said we’re going to build a [fertile farm system] so we don’t have to pay massive amounts in free agency,” Johnson said. “If you look at the guys we’ve sent to the big leagues, we’ve done that.
“At least to me they also understand there’s going to be peaks and valleys along the way,” he continued. “If I don’t work for people who understand [what the primary purpose of the farm system is], it would make my job far more difficult and I’d be saying ‘This is awful.’”
From strictly a developmental standpoint, 2009 will go in the books as a unusual one for the Pawtucket Red Sox. Yet through all the ignominious defeats (some were more painful than others), Johnson sees a group of ballplayers who will be better served down the line, where it truly counts.
“I’ve done a better job (managing) this year because of all the things that have gone on,” said Johnson, referencing the playoff team Pawtucket fielded a year ago, “but next year, when it’s late May and we’re leading the division and have guys in the top-10 of categories offensively and pitching, we’re going to turn back the clock and say, ‘Those last six weeks were about paying our dues.’”