Status: Good but not great

Last night’s 8-3 loss to the Tigers put the bow in wow, so let’s not waste a whole lot of time dissecting why Drew Pomeranz could not complete five innings, why the offense could not rally, why the Red Sox could not sweep the Tigers and how none of us who watched that game will ever get those 246 minutes back.

Instead, let’s look at that game as some kind of a state of the union for this 34-28 Red Sox team.

With 100 games to go, the state of this team is that it is a good club — but one that can’t seem to get much better than good.

Winning two out of three games against any team is always the goal, so this start to the homestand counts as a good, not great, one.

And Pomeranz pitching a short game is not exactly a news flash anymore, but he’s also coming off three starts in which he pitched pretty gosh darn well. So last night’s start only reiterates that Pomeranz has been good, not great, this season.

Look at all the baserunners the Red Sox had — 18 in all — yet the lineup could only bring three of them across the plate. They left the bases loaded in the ninth, when Chris Young hit a two-out hot rocket to shortstop Jose Iglesias, who managed to snag it out of the air at the last second to end the game — denying the Sox their third consecutive lategame rally against the Tigers, after scoring five and then 11 runs the previous two days.

That’s good run production right there.

Had there been a ninth-inning rally, it would have been great, but as you’re catching on by now, greatness has eluded the 2017 Red Sox.

They have a lot of talent — one superb starter, and a few others who can still pitch like that, plus a bunch of dangerous hitters who have yet to hit their stride in any sustained way.

Sustained goodness equals, or at least approaches, greatness. And that’s just it with the entire Red Sox team.

They ’re good, and then they’re soso, sometimes bad, and then they’re good again. Greatness appears out of their reach — not because they don’t have the potential for greatness, but simply because they haven’t offered proof they can tap their Agame on a consistent basis.

There are plenty of good teams that never get hot, and thus never become great.

Around here, especially after last night’s slo-mo snoozefest, that’s not going to fill the seats, keep the viewers on the couch or add up to compelling reasons to keep our attention focused on this squad.

The Red Sox need a spark, a lift, a pregame pep rally starring David Ortiz, a trade. They need a player to go all Jason Varitek with his mitt on Alex Rodriguez’ face and start the engines that have yet to reach full horsepower this season.

Something, not necessarily someone, is missing from this Red Sox team. There’s still time to discover what, or who, it is, but not forever.

And if that wait means many more games like the one they played last night, that’s a concern, and let mercy rain down upon us.

There has to be a better method than that to find out if the Red Sox are a better team than they look to be right now.