The Red Sox lost their third straight game on Monday night, losing to the Mets 4-1 at Citi Field in New York.
Boston has now lost eight of their last 11 games, and are 17-25 since returning from the MLB All-Star break.
“We’re not playing well right now,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora postgame. “It’s not going our way right now, and we’ve got to show up tomorrow and try to win a game. We’re running out of time, let’s put it that way.”
By running out of time, Cora is referring to the American League Wild Card standings, where his team (70-68) is now 4.5 games behind the Kansas City Royals (75-64) for the league’s final wild card spot.
Boston has 24 games remaining on their schedule, while Kansas City has 23. So while the possibility of passing the Royals remains possible, the probability of it happening is becoming less and less plausible. especially with losses mounting.
“I know what the other teams are doing - they are not playing well either,” said Cora. “But the days we don’t take advantage of it are wasted days. So we have to find a way to win a game.”
Brayan Bello (12-7, 4.75 ERA) was the losing pitcher, giving up all 4 runs on 7 hits through 5 innings of work. He struck out four and walked one batter.
Josh Winckowski (4.16 ERA) looked good in relief, allowing only 1 hit through 3 innings of work, matching Bello in both strikeouts and walks.
Boston’s pitching is not why the Red Sox lost on Monday night.
It was a combination of Mets starting pitcher Luis Severino dealing, along with the all-too-common occurrence of fielding blunders for Boston.
The Mets righty went 7 innings, allowing 1 run on 6 hits. He struck out five, walked one, and only allowed two hits during Boston’s nine plate appearances with runners on base.
“He has good stuff,” said Red Sox outfielder Tyler O’Neill after the game. “He has two really good fastballs, a few different breaking balls. He showed it off tonight.”
Something O’Neill did not show off tonight was that Gold Glove ability in left field, as an error in the 4th inning on a Luis Torrens double down the line allowed D.J. Stewart to score all the way from first base, giving the Mets a 3-1 lead.
This came one inning after Red Sox center fielder Jarren Duran made a rare mistake in center field, misjudging a catchable ball hit by Brandon Nimmo, watching it fly over his head and allowing Francisco Lindor to score from first to give the Mets 2-1 lead.
“Duran is the best defensive center fielder in the league,” said Cora. “He is going to make mistakes sometimes. For me, he was trying to make a play. Bad read and he didn’t make the play. That’s going to happen.”
What needs to happen is a string of wins for Boston, if they want to remain in the playoff hunt.
“We are going through a bit of a stretch right now,” said O’Neill. “We need to score some more runs out there. The pitchers are giving us a chance by keeping those runs off the board. We just have to find ways to [score runs].”
The Red Sox resume their series with the Mets on Tuesday, as Kutter Crawford (8-12, 4.12 ERA) takes the mound for Boston. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. in Queens.