The Boston Red Sox aren't mathematically eliminated yet. Not even close. But it feels like the season is past the point of no return.
After dropping a 7-2 decision to the New York Mets on Tuesday night, Boston's fourth loss in a row, it's hard to see this team somehow picking themselves up off the mat.
With the loss, the Red Sox dropped to 70-69--one game over .500 for the first time since Jun. 15, when they defeated the New York Yankees to jumpstart their hot streak in early summer. They're free-falling right now, and it's going to take all they have just to avoid another last-place finish.
If all that wasn't enough pain to digest, Tuesday's game added insult to injury in the form of an unfortunate record the Boston offense set.
According to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, Tuesday was the 38th time this season the Red Sox's hitters struck out at least 12 times, a new single-season franchise record. The previous record, 37, came in 2021.
They exceeded the 12-K margin comfortably against the New York pitching staff, racking up 15 punchouts and failing to register a single extra-base hit. And when the Mets gift-wrapped the Sox a bases-loaded opportunity in the top of the eighth inning, they immediately bounced into a double play that effectively ended the game.
During the four-game losing streak, the Red Sox have scored one, one, one, and two runs. They've been awful with runners in scoring position and awful at driving the baseball. The last home run Boston hit was Tyler O'Neill's solo home run in the first inning on Saturday.
What makes all this worse is that the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins are both playing awful baseball right now. They're begging the Red Sox to get back into the wild-card race. And Boston, in turn, is effectively saying "thanks, but no thanks."
At this point, it seems all Boston can hope to do is stay above .500, and hope next year is different. But they were saying similar things at this exact time 365 days ago.
