Before bouncing back to sweep the Orioles, the Red Sox limped home to Fenway Park, arriving at daybreak Friday after a stunning 1-5 road trip. An otherwise exhilarating season hit rock bottom with a three-game sweep by the Kansas City Royals.

One of the biggest disappointments of the road trip was the performance of the bullpen. In fact, Red Sox relievers combined for an ERA of 5.11 in the 13 games coming into the weekend, putting them right in the middle of the A.L. and in the bottom third of all bullpens.

For a team hoping to win a championship, those numbers are not good enough.

More than any recent team, the hopes of the Red Sox ride on young arms. Jonathan Papelbon (30 saves coming into the homestand) has been the single-most important member. Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen have combined to overcome disappointing seasons turned in by Rudy Seanez and Julian Tavarez.

Have the young arms hit the wall? Perhaps. Delcarmen is on pace to match his career high in games pitched. He has certainly thrown more innings (as a starter) but has never been as busy as he has been this year.

Craig Hansen, a lights-out college closer who quickly climbed through the minor-league ranks in his first pro season last year, is on pace to shatter the biggest workload of his career. Last year, Hansen began the season pitching for St. John’s University, and would make his Major League debut before the end of the season. Now, he’s become an important part of the Sox set-up corps.

Papelbon is an interesting study. He’s never pitched as a closer in the pro ranks (although he did close games at Mississippi State.) He has already proven his makeup to Red Sox fans, saving 30 of his first 35 games. Yet he has not been lights-out since catcher Jason Varitek was lost to injury.

Coming into the homestand, Papelbon had only saved four of his previous seven chances, including back-to-back blown saves on the road trip. His ERA in the 10 days after Varitek went on the DL was more than 6.00.

Just a reminder of how valuable Varitek is to this team.

Having said that, manager Terry Francona likes the makeup of his bullpen – and his team.

“If you have to go through things like this, and sometimes you do, I’ll take this group,” said Francona. “They try to do the right thing all the time.

“We’ll try to learn from what goes on. What we need to do is just play good baseball. You can’t get too far ahead of yourself, or you can get overwhelmed a little bit.”

For most of this season, Papelbon has been overwhelming opposition, and the middle relievers have been good enough to get him the ball. Back at Fenway, where the Sox bats get hot, they’ll try to find that combination once again.

They’ll need to find that combination if they hope to unlock an unprecedented fourth straight trip to the post-season.