BOSTON -- If Boston had won on Sunday, the way Dustin Pedroia turned a double play in the sixth inning would have been a highlight.

Instead, the double play that Pedroia could not make in the eighth became an issue. And Pedroia took a couple swipes at the grounds crew because of it.

In the eighth inning, with runners on first and second, and one out, the slow-footed Kendry Morales hit a hard grounder toward the hole between first and second.

Pedroia hustled to his left, but the ball bounced up on him. He could only knock it down and throw Morales out at first. Both runners then scored on Juan Rivera's single.

Two costly runs that Pedroia knows would not have scored if he fielded the grounder cleanly.

"It took a bad hop," Pedroia said. "Our infield (stinks). It's the worst in the game."

Pedroia was obviously peeved, but did not back away from his statement.

"I'm not lying about that. That is true. I think about those things. That stuff upsets me," Pedroia said. "My job is to take 1,000 groundballs a day. Other guys' job is to get the field perfect so we can play baseball."

Jonathan Papelbon was moving in on a legend's record, until two outs in the ninth inning. He had not allowed an earned run in 27 innings (counting the one out he recorded in the eighth, and the two in the ninth).

The only pitcher to begin a postseason career with more shutout innings was Christy Mathewson's 28 shutout innings from 1905 to 1911.

While Papelbon has excelled at not yielding runs, he has progressively allowed more base runners. His walks/hits per inning ratio was .771 in 2007, then .952 last year, and 1.147 in 2009.

Papelbon said he would be able to get over Sunday's loss "as soon as I leave this clubhouse. I don't take anything home with me, or anything into the offseason."

Later, Papelbon did say he would not forget what happened on Sunday.

"Who knows? I may be replaying this on the TV in my weight room," he said. "Give me a little motivation for the next season."

Theo Epstein disagreed with the notion that the Red Sox were going downhill -- having won the World Series in 2007, lost in the ALCS in 2008, and eliminated in the divisional series this year.

"The way I look at it, we've had two three-year runs in the post-season," he said. "We've swept the World Series twice (2004, '07). We've been eliminated in Game 7 of the ALCS twice (2003, '08). And we've been swept in the first round twice (2005, '09).

"We couldn't have predicted (the results) at any time. We were prepared to go on a nice, long run. The goal for this organization is to try and win 95 games and get into the postseason with as good a team as you can possibly can; play our tails off and try to win a World Series."