When the Boston Red Sox went on a 15-game winning streak, anything that could have gone right did. Whether it was pitching, defense, or offensively, things were clicking in all areas of the game.
After the winning streak was snapped by the Baltimore Orioles in July, Boston continued to find different ways to win games. They swept the two-time World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in Southern California last month. They then came home and swept the first-place Chicago White Sox.
However, eventually things would even out, and it is. Boston dropped two out of three to the Athletics at home over the weekend. After a 5-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Tuesday night, they have lost four in a row. After the latest setback, interim manager Chad Tracy didn’t mince words about his team’s slump.
Boston Red Sox Interim Manager Chad Tracy Drops Truth Bomb After Second Blue Jays Loss
When the Red Sox were rolling, they were thriving in all areas. Their pitching was lights out, their defense was flawless, and their offense was coming up with clutch hits. Two out of the three are letting them down during their losing streak. Defense and clutch hitting. The latter hasn’t gone lost on Tracy.
“You’re not going to get the clutch hit for six straight weeks and keep getting it,” Tracy said, per Tim Healy of the Boston Globe. “There’s going to be times (when) you’re just going to have to grind through it, and we’re in that space right now. We’re just going to keep grinding.”
They didn’t come up with the clutch hits on Tuesday night enough like they did when the ripped off 15 straight wins. However, against Toronto’s Dylan Cease, the made the right-hander work. He lasted just five innings, allowing five hits and three runs. Cease needed 104 pitches to get through just five innings. In his last start against Boston in July, he threw a complete-game masterpiece.
“I think we actually did a great job with Cease,” Tracy said, per Healy. “We swung at strikes, we took balls, we took walks, took some big swings. Obviously, you’re not going to get a ton off of him, but we got him out of the game by the fifth, which was great.”
The problem was, the Red Sox could get nothing off Toronto’s bullpen. Four pitchers combined for four shutout innings while the Blue Jays offense rallied late. Boston is just 3-for-34 with runners in scoring position, with 38 runners left on base during their losing streak, per Healy.
Red Sox Look for Series Split Against Blue Jays
The Red Sox will hand the ball to their top two available left-handed pitchers, Ranger Suárez and Payton Tolle, to try to earn a split in Toronto. Four losses have slid Boston to three games behind the New York Yankees for the first American League wild-card spot.
Tracy is right: getting clutch hits for six weeks, as Boston did, was unsustainable. Nobody would deny that. The Red Sox have their work cut out for themselves to avoid a second straight series loss, but they have the two best arms available to stop the slide.
Boston Red Sox Interim Manager Chad Tracy Drops Honest Quote After Second Straight Loss To Blue Jays