ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Frustration reached a crescendo Monday night with long faces, angry faces, and disappointed faces making their way around the Red Sox clubhouse after their 13-7 loss.

Manager John Farrell seemed the most annoyed after speaking to the team while the visiting clubhouse employees were left outside the clubhouse with the media. It must have been a doozy if the clubhouse attendants asked to leave.

Obviously the worst thing that happened last night was the poor performance of starter Eduardo Rodriguez, who exacerbated a teamwide problem: first-inning runs. The Red Sox have been outscored in the first inning 29-6 in June, and 22-0 since June 12.

There were meetings with Farrell, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, senior vice president of baseball operations Frank Wren, as well as bullpen coach Dana Levangie and pitching coach Carl Willis, who declined comment after the game.

They keep saying they need to stop it, but right now they can’t. They let a Rays team that had lost 11 straight games kick them in the posterior in an all-too-familiar fashion.

Rodriguez was optioned to Pawtucket after the game. The move came after he allowed five runs in the first, four in the third, and watched his ERA explode to 8.59.

Rodriguez has a 10.50 ERA in the first inning. If you look at six of their primary starters – The Sox’ six primary starters this year — Rodriguez, David Price, Rick Porcello, Clay Buchholz, Steven Wright, and Joe Kelly — have pitched 69? innings in the first inning and have allowed 50 earned runs, 92 hits, with a 6.46 ERA.

Buchholz’s first-inning ERA is 9.75, followed by Kelly (9.53), Price (5.63), Wright (4.20), and Porcello (4.20).

This is horrible. Sox starters have put the rest of the team in a tough spot. Obviously, Rodriguez took a huge step backward.

Farrell said he could only count on the bullpen for five innings last night. So Rodriguez had to gut it out for as long as he could. He lasted 2? innings and 11 hits and nine earned runs, with two home runs. He was horrible.

This vicious circle the Red Sox find themselves in has been created by various reasons, but how do they solve them? Why do starters get kicked around in the first inning? Is there a pregame routine that has to be changed? Should there be a different focus in pregame bullpens so they start the game off right?

“It could be they’re not warming up right,’’ said one veteran American League scout at the game Monday night. “Sometimes guys come out and like to attack the strike zone and so the opposition gets more aggressive with their approach. It’s a battle of who executes their game plan better. And lately it looks like the opposition is winning.’’

No one seems immune.

Are the Red Sox throwing too many pitches down the middle in the first inning? Are they throwing their fastball too much? Remember when Daisuke Matsuzaka was getting predictable and he’d start a game by throws 20 straight fastballs? Josh Beckett fell into the same routine for a while before he had to change things up. Maybe Sox pitchers are getting into a first-inning routine that other teams are exploiting. Maybe they all need to become more unpredictable.

Overall in 76 first innings, the Red Sox have allowed 98 hits and 53 earned runs, with a major-league worst 6.28 ERA. They have also allowed 13 homers. Opponents are hitting .316 against them in the first, also worst in the majors.

Hall of Fame lefty Tom Glavine said, “I tried everything – warm up early, late, etc. I think more than anything, it’s just trying to find your feel and location.’’

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who watches the team closely said, “I’ve been a part of things like that. It’s something like the flu. Others catch it the bug and soon you have guys going out there trying not to give up a first-inning run. It’ll correct itself, but the bigger issue is E-Rod and his inability to pitch. He has no confidence and mechanically he looks like [expletive deleted] throwing his fastball and he has no fastball command.’’

Should there be changes in routine?

“When you start doing those things you start convincing yourself it is a real problem when it’s not. It’s a mind-set,’’ Schilling said.

Former Red Sox catcher and current Cubs backstop David Ross said first-inning woes “usually has to do with routine, how they prepare. It could have to do with energy or nerves.’’

While we’ve written extensively about the need for reinforcements in the pitching ranks, one new starter isn’t going to make that big of a difference unless the other four starters are limiting the damage in the first.

“To continue to fall behind as much as we are of late,’’ said Farrell, “we’re more talented than that. We have the capability of executing pitches at a higher rate. We can’t continue to expect our offense to climb out of holes like that. So we have to set the tone and lead the way from the mound more than we are.

“The bottom line is [Rodriguez is] capable of more, we’re capable of more, and we need to get better. And we had a chance to share that here after the game tonight. You know what we have to collectively get better.’’

Remember when the Red Sox were exploding for multiple runs in the first inning? What happened to that? Did opposing pitchers make adjustments on them?

“That’s baseball,’’ second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. “Hell, [in the first inning] Mookie [Betts] lined out. I hit a ball hard to right. [Xander Bogaerts] hit a bolt to second base and it’s the bottom of the inning. So all three of us had pretty good at-bats and we’re out. It’s baseball, man.’’

Some would argue that what Sox pitchers are playing is not that all. It’s a game of frustrating twists and turns for a rotation that seems doomed from the first inning of the game.

Yes, that does have to change, or all the great moves that Dombrowski could make might not be enough.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.