Interim manager Chad Tracy needed just one word to describe what the Red Sox are going through right now: tough.
Since returning home following a 4-2 road trip, punctuated by a sweep of the Kansas City Royals, things have changed drastically.
The Red Sox have dropped four consecutive games, falling to 8-18 at home this season, and remain the only team yet to reach 10 wins in its home ballpark. The four-game losing skid has also dropped them to a season-worst nine games below .500, a low point they had not reached since October 2022.
Three straight losses have featured ninth-inning rallies that came up just short, with the tying or winning run left on base each time. They’ve also scored five or more runs in three of those four defeats, a mark they were previously 12-4 when reaching before this stretch.
Tough, indeed.
What’s even tougher is the long-term view.
Wednesday night will be Boston’s 54th game of the season, representing the exact one-third mark of the year, and they are already drifting into dangerous territory at 22-31 on the season, with really no clear turnaround in sight.
Despite seeing an uptick in offensive production this month — ranking top-10 in batting average (5th, .253), OPS (7th, .722), and OBP (10th, .323) while hitting 20 home runs — the Red Sox are still just 10-12 in May. The only American League teams with fewer wins this month are the Detroit Tigers (5) and Los Angeles Angels (9), the two teams currently at the bottom of the AL standings.
“We’re lucky to be in the American League. We just got to keep going,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa said. “Hopefully, we string some together, and other teams lose – we’re honestly just lucky to be in the American League.”
That reality is Boston’s only cushion right now. A 22-31 record in the National League would leave them eight games out of a Wild Card spot. Instead, they sit just 4.0 games back.
But that margin is shrinking, and the schedule isn’t offering much relief. The Red Sox still have two more games against the Braves, who lead baseball with 37 wins. Then, over their next four series, they’ll face three more teams currently ranked among the top five in wins this season: the Rays (3rd), Yankees (4th), and Guardians (5th).
As the one-third mark of the season would suggest, there is still plenty of baseball left to be played. In fact, Tuesday night marked the first 80-plus-degree game at Fenway Park this season. But even with 109 games still remaining, the clock is already starting to work against these Red Sox as they continue searching for the sustained run that has eluded them all year.
“One of these times we’re going to put together what we do in the 9th the whole game, and we’re going to go on a run, and it’s going to be sick,” Jarren Duran said.
The room for error is dwindling quickly. That run needs to arrive sooner rather than later before this season slips even further away.
