When the Red Sox were winning 15 straight, and later nine straight, an — all told — 35 of 43 games over a seven-week stretch, everyone knew the utterly unsustainable run would eventually come to an end.
The question, simply, was how severe would the correction be?
The answer, five games into this new reality, is quite severe.
The latest loss — Boston’s fifth straight — came Wednesday night in Toronto, in a game that was fairly even through seven innings. The first seven innings featured Willson Contreras snapping out of his cold streak with a game-tying solo homer in the fifth inning, Wilyer Abreu authoring a top-10 web gem for the week, and Ranger Suarez allowing just one run over six innings.
The game also featured Ceddanne Rafaela unwisely trying to take two bases on a wild pitch, a decision which resulted in him being easily thrown out at third base by catcher Alejandro Kirk.
That was one mistake, though. And throughout the Red Sox’ stretch of seemingly endless wins, the team overcame numerous gaffes along the way.
This one, however, was compounded in the bottom of the eighth. With two on and nobody out, reliever Tyron Guerrero was able to induce a harmless foul pop-up from Kaz Okamoto for the first out of the inning.
But Contreras didn’t catch it.
And Okamoto sent the very next pitch into center field, breaking the 1-1 tie and plating two runs for Toronto.
Guerrero, who’s historically struggled with command but has displayed great control all season, then walked Ernie Clement to give Toronto another run. Guerrero gave way to Alec Gamboa, who gave up a sacrifice fly before surrendering a back-breaking double to Myles Straw.
And just like that, a 1-1 tie was a 6-1 deficit for the Red Sox.
To that point, the Red Sox had been 3-for-39 (.077) with runners in scoring position dating back to Saturday’s game vs. the A’s, the day when the current losing streak started. They did manage to improve those numbers ever so slightly, with Caleb Durbin singling to center with runners on second and third before Jarren Duran ripped an RBI double in the top of the ninth. Closer Louis Varland was called upon, and Andruw Monasterio hit a sacrifice fly before Nick Sogard harmlessly grounded out to second base to end the game.
Improving the RISP batting average to .119 and making the final score 6-4 might have represented some positive progress for a Red Sox team that’s been scuffling for five straight days. Still, that’s a very minor moral victory on a night where things once again fell apart.
Contreras — who’s been the target of booing at Fenway Park and criticism from some corners of the media, all while battling through some physical ailments and illnesses — was once again at the center of this one. Had he simply caught the routine pop-up instead of trying to make the catch while spinning toward the runner at second, perhaps Guerrero would have settled down. Based on the fact that he has allowed a run in just five of his 30 appearances this year and allowed multiple runs just twice, the flamethrower’s record would suggest exactly that.
Instead, Guerrero unraveled, taking the Red Sox down with him.
The Red Sox have now been outscored 24-14 since Saturday, and the mistakes — whether it’s forgetting how many outs there are on the bases, Durbin making fielding errors, Monasterio missing balls at short, Contreras dropping pop-ups, Aroldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock combining to turn wins into losses, Jake Bennett running out of gas, etc. — are piling up.
That’s not to suggest that the Red Sox played perfect baseball when they were winning 32 of 37 games. Far from it. Those Red Sox, though, found a new way to overcome the mistakes when they did pop up. These Red Sox seem stuck in some mud.
Combined with a Yankees win in New York, the Red Sox dropped to four games behind the Yankees for the top wild-card spot. Dreams of catching the Rays in the AL East — which may have been a bit aggressive to begin with — are now fully dashed, with Boston sitting 10 games behind Tampa Bay.
What the team seems to need more than anything is a break. They had last Monday off — the day of the trade deadline — but also spent it traveling back from a late-night West Coast game. Their last day off before that was July 23, and their next scheduled day off is next Thursday, Aug. 20.
The question, amid this sudden stretch of losing, is what position the Red Sox will be in before they welcome Rafael Devers (and perhaps Marcelo Mayer) and the San Francisco Giants to Fenway Park next weekend. At some point, they’re going to need to stop the bleeding. As it stands right now, they don’t appear to have any solutions.
