The Red Sox entered their weekend series against the Yankees needing at least a split, but now they find themselves relying on a lot to go right in the final stretch of the season.
Boston had multiple chances to capitalize in the four-game set against their American League East rivals. However, Aaron Judge, the frontrunner for AL MVP, crushed a grand slam on Friday, and the Red Sox offense faltered in key moments.
“It was a bad series because we lost three out of four. We were in every game,” manager Alex Cora said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I was just talking to (Rob Refsnyder); you look at this week, we played Baltimore and the Yankees. We lost three here, and one at home, but every game was a close one. But that’s not enough in this league. You don’t get wins by playing tough games. You get W’s when you win games, and we haven’t been doing it.”
Following Sunday’s 5-2 loss, Boston now trails the Twins by 4 1/2 games. While they will face Minnesota next weekend, the Red Sox also need the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners to stumble in the final weeks to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“It’s been tough,” Cora admitted when asked about Boston’s struggle to build winning streaks post-All-Star break. “We’ve lost games in a lot of different ways. We’ve been talking about the offense lately, but I think they’re doing a good job bouncing back. At one point, it was the rotation. At another point, it was the bullpen. If you look at our season as a whole, yeah, it might seem good to a lot of people. But we believe we can play in October. Right now, it’s getting tougher.”
