Close your eyes for scary sight

MIAMI — So it has come to this, has it?

Now that Koji Uehara has slid out of the Red Sox bullpen group shot with a fractured wrist, the Red Sox will take a look at Junichi Tazawa, Jean Machi and Ryan Cook as their closer over the last few weeks of the season.

All together now, in our best Jack Donaghy voice, “Good god, Lemon!”

The fact that another Red Sox loss last night could be placed squarely and uncomfortably on the shoulders of a couple of relievers was hardly a shocker.

Still, it’s hard to know where to start with how ugly and yes, desperate, the situation has grown with the Sox bullpen this season, but let’s start with a positive thought.

Which is, it’s kind of cute how the Red Sox think they will have at least three save opportunities between now and the end of the season in order to get at least one look apiece from that Nasty-Boys-Lite trio of Tazawa, Machi and Cook.

In save opportunity No. 1 last night, Tazawa blew his first post-Uehara save opportunity, allowing the game-tying run.

Then, Craig Breslow came in for the 10th inning and wasted little time allowing the Marlins’ winning run to score.

That’s why, frankly speaking, the discovery process of who replaces Uehara is a dead end, one that only hints at the enormity of the bullpen rebuilding process — think: Big Dig — the Red Sox will face in the offseason.

More immediately, it also leaves out the weaker links that precede that “City upon a Hill” mirage of the next, interim Red Sox closer.

Along with that terrific trio, Breslow, Alexi Ogando, Robbie Ross and Tommy Layne are just the current roster-holders for a season-long effort — let’s not forget Noe Ramirez, Jonathan Aro, Dalier Hinojosa, Heath Hembree and Matt Barnes — that has resulted in just about the worst bullpen in the big leagues this season.

Entering last night, the Red Sox bullpen’s FIP (fielding independent pitching, which measures how a pitcher truly performs and is frequently a better indicator of production than ERA) of 4.40 and their WAR of negative-0.4 were second worst among all 30 teams, trailing only the Rangers. And their cumulative ERA of 4.02 was eighth worst in the majors, fifth worst in the AL. Individually, it’s uglier. Ogando’s FIP of 5.50 is the worst of any reliever this season with at least 40 innings pitched.

No. 2 on that list is Breslow at 5.44. Ross is 16th at 3.94. Ogando’s negative-0.9 WAR is the worst of anyone, while Breslow, at negative-0.6, is only third worst.

“You look at what Taz and Koji have done, they’ve been consistent, they’ve been as anticipated,” said manager John Farrell before last night’s 5-4 loss to the Marlins. “Other than that, we’ve been far too inconsistent to say that we don’t need to improve. We need to improve. We need to improve pitching across the board. That’s what the guys that are here currently that project to be here going forward, and that’s to fortify both areas — both the bullpen and the rotation.”

Farrell mentioned the rotation. Common sense strongly suggests a bad rotation would correlate with a bad bullpen, simply because relievers called in to pitch too early and too often tend to get worn down.

And the Red Sox, going into last night, had thrown the seventh-most pitches — 5,922 to be exact — of any team and the sixth-most innings (3602⁄ 3). But consider the teams that sandwich the Red Sox bullpen in the pitches-thrown department: It’s the AL East-leading Yankees, with the highest bullpen WAR (4.5) and the Cubs, who have a good, not great, bullpen and also are in the thick of the NL wild card chase.

So if you want to blame the rotation for the ills of the bullpen, go ahead — there’s plenty of blame to cast on the club’s pitching — but that does not fit the bleak narrative of the Red Sox bullpen.

“It’s one of the factors,” said Farrell. “Anytime that you’ve got guys coming to the mound too frequently, that’s going to have an effect. There’s a number of ways to address that. One, the most simple way, maybe the most expensive way obviously, is you’re looking at more innings out of your starters. The other way is to have a rotation (of relievers) where you’re rotating guys from Pawtucket back to here to give you that flexibility and freshness you’re looking for.” And the Sox certainly have that. That’s why we’re talking about Tazawa, Machi and Cook right now.

And that conversation is a sad one.