Snap out of this funk
Or things could get uncomfortable fast
The Red Sox have run out of excuses for losing. They keep this up, they’re going to run out of time, too.
How is it that a team that played at such an elite level since the trading deadline suddenly faces a seasonworst five-game losing streak tonight if it loses to
RED SOX BEAT Michael Silverman
the Blue Jays in the opener of yet another critical road trip?
The Red Sox have had more excuses than answers so far.
One night it’s the starting pitching that’s gone south, the next the defense is coughing up the ball.
One day it’s the fact that they’re helpless against the Orioles this season, the next, like yesterday, it’s the offense that’s flat-lining like it’s July all over again — dropping the Sox to 6-10 vs. their AL East rivals.
It’s always something, and lately it’s always been something different. But really, even if they were screwing up the same way each night, would it make any difference?
The Red Sox are in a funk all right. And as much as they want to convince themselves that this is merely a rough patch instead of some kind of shattering 2011-like swoon starting, they have brought this upon themselves.
They need to shake it off — and quickly.
A collapse is not at all on the table right now, but you can bet if the Red Sox cannot take care of business in Toronto against the one and only team in their division they are capable of beating handily — 7-3 so far, with nine games left to go — things are going to get awfully squirmy along Yawkey Way.
Squirrely, even.
“I mean, it comes, it’s the game of baseball,” said Mookie Betts, who deviated from his usually excellent hitting with runners in scoring position when he stared at strike three with the bases loaded in the sixth. “It’s over now, we’re still in first and we have to worry about tomorrow.
“It’s very important going to Toronto and New York, they’re some tough opponents, and they’re in the division. It’s going to be huge, Game 1 (today).”
The key to the Red Sox’ slightly less impressive surge since the trading deadline (16-8 record) has been their starting pitching. Yesterday, Doug Fister did his part gain, allowing just two runs over seven innings. But the offense flopped, stranding 13 baserunners.
The offense scored just four runs the last three games after scoring 25 times in four games at Cleveland and 17 in a three-game set last weekend against the Yankees at Fenway.
So Betts wasn’t having any talk about a permanent state of rigor mortis with the lineup.
“I don’t think we’re having trouble. A couple of days ago we weren’t having this conversation,” said Betts. “Just a couple of rough days.”
Predictably, manager John Farrell also kept the panic button well out of reach. His team, after all, is still in first place, even though their 21⁄2-game lead over the Yankees could evaporate before the team returns home again on Labor Day.
Instead, he reached for reasons.
“We’ve got to pitch a little more consistently, that goes without saying, and we did that today,” said Farrell. “But we’re in a little bit of a dry patch. You look at the last four games, early leads given up to the opposition. You take away the turn of this last game in this four-game stretch, and certainly this last game of this series, we played a solid game. Yet the two-out base hit was elusive.”
This four-game losing skid might not feel so foreign if not for how much it stands in contrast to how the club has played all month.
The pitching, the clutch hitting, the defense — they’ve all been there, consistently. The team has overcome a great deal of adversity, an admirable trait for a legitimate playoff contender.
When none of that shows up for four games in a row, it’s concerning. It adds urgency to a baseball calendar that already seems to be racing toward October.
“We’ve banded together, we’ve rallied around one another, we certainly know that these seven games are going to be — heck, you could say that about our 32 games that are remaining — we have a good challenge ahead of us,” said Farrell. “Have loved the way we’ve responded to challenges throughout this year.”
A month’s worth of games remain, 10 series in all. Half of them are against bad to below-average teams — the Blue Jays, A’s, Reds — with the rest against the three other AL East teams, ending with four games against the AL-best Astros.
Long before then, the Red Sox need to spring from the gutter they just stumbled into and wipe off the mud.
They’d best get in that habit in Toronto these next three games. Waiting until getting to the Bronx would be inexcusable.