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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — We thought from the beginning that the bullpen was clearly an area where the Yankees were better. That couldn’t have been borne out more than on Opening Day at Tropicana Field when the Red Sox bullpen imploded.

Six innings of one-hit ball by Chris Sale led to abysmal performances by Joe Kelly and Carson Smith. These are Boston’s setup men, and on Thursday afternoon they set up a disaster. A 4-0 lead soon dissolved into a 6-4 loss. Kelly was charged with four runs. Smith couldn’t find the plate, walked a batter with the bases loaded, and then allowed a three-run triple to right by Denard Span.

If Dennis Eckersley had been in the NESN booth, he would have referred to the bullpen’s performance as “yuck.’’ Let’s face it, it was even worse than that.

And what a time to be yuck. First game of the season. Outcome seemingly in hand. Sale pitches great and is out after 92 pitches. Matt Barnes comes on to pitch a clean seventh, and Kelly is summoned for the eighth and the game changes on a dime. This was not what new Red Sox manager Alex Cora­ was looking for. All camp long, everyone seemed to have smooth relief outings, including Smith, who had missed most of the last two seasons after Tommy John surgery.

Was Smith the guy to go to after Kelly was yanked with the lefthanded-hitting Brad Miller due up? Bobby Poyner was warming up. If you are not going to use him then, when will he be used?

Cora said afterward he was not going to bring in someone who has never pitched above Double A into his first major league game with the bases loaded. Understandable? OK.

Should Cora have turned to Craig Kimbrel in one of those high-leverage situations the manager spoke about in camp? Kimbrel had thrown against the Cubs on Tuesday. Was it too soon to go back to him after he made only two appearances in major league games all spring?

Cora said his staff decided before the game that Kimbrel was not going to be used in the eighth inning. The feeling was it was too early for that, after he missed most of camp to be with his daughter after her heart procedure.

New pitching coach Dana LeVangie said, “Not now. We’ll ease him into that. It wouldn’t be fair to do that to him.’’

Cora agreed. It would mean Kimbrel would have had to get ready in the middle of an inning. Cora said he’d also have to get Kimbrel out there for the ninth, but would he? Couldn’t he have used Kimbrel in the eighth in the high-leverage situation, and then use someone else for the ninth, perhaps Smith?

You can also question whether Kimbrel should be on the roster if he’s not ready for anything and everything this early in the season.

You can question the decision of who was used when, but the bottom line is that if Kelly and Smith are late-inning relievers, they have to be able to protect a four-run lead. What an awful way for a team to lose. What an awful taste in the mouths of Red Sox players to see the bullpen squander their good work in the first game of the season against a lousy team.

“They’re our guys and they’ll continue to be our guys,’’ LeVangie said. “Given the matchups, they were the guys to use in those situations.’’

The Sox were looking for a double play out of Smith, with his funky delivery. What should have been Cora’s first win, a new beginning for the Red Sox, turned into a fiasco of the highest order.

You don’t hear Rays fans go crazy very often, but they did when the final out of the game was recorded. The Red Sox didn’t play all of this three-hour game. They played about 2:30 of it. The last half-hour was pure hell. When a team’s bullpen loses a game, it’s demoralizing. You have to know that the bullpen can keep the status quo. You have to know it can protect a four-run lead.

Kelly called his performance “pathetic.’’ He entered the game at the start of the eighth and immediately walked Daniel Robertson. After Kelly struck out the next batter, Matt Duffy doubled, driving in the Rays’ first run. Kelly then walked Kevin Kiermaier and Carlos Gomez.

“You can live with getting hit around a little bit,’’ Kelly said, “but when you put runners on with a free pass, first of all it’s going to bite you in the butt, and second of all, the most frustrating part, the guys in front of you threw the ball so well, we hit well, fielded well. Let’s just say it’s probably as worse as it can get.’’

Smith walked in the second run. After Wilson Ramos struck out, Span cleared the bases.

“It’s tough, but I’ve been there before,’’ said Smith. “I shouldn’t have problems getting out of that. I can’t walk the first guy. My command was a little off. My fastball was all right and I had trouble with Span. I had him 1-2 and couldn’t put him away.’’

Smith added, “I’ve always lived and died for those pressure moments, and it just didn’t work in our favor today.’’

Things had better improve in the bullpen because nothing can bring a team down quicker and ruin a manager’s tenure faster than a shoddy bullpen. And nothing can reinforce that the Yankees have a better pen than when something like this happens.

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