A look back at some of this season’s key points leading to last night’s hiring of Dave Dombrowski as president of baseball operations:
April 1: The Red Sox learn that expected starting catcher Christian Vazquez will miss the season because of Tommy John surgery.
May 7: Mired in a 13-15 start with a league-worst 5.54 team ERA, the Red Sox fire pitching coach Juan Nieves.
June 2: Back home after a 1-6 road trip that left the team at 22-29, John Henry backs Ben Cherington — under fire because of underachieving offseason additions like Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval and Rick Porcello — and says he will be the Red Sox GM “for a very long time.