TAMPA — What was probably the Red Sox’ last visit to George Steinbrenner Field — at least as a regular season venue – could have been better in total.
The Red Sox took the first two games of the series, but failed to record a sweep Sunday night as team’s offensive issues re-appeared in a 7-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
After consistently putting the ball in play in the first two games and totaling 17 runs, the Red Sox suffered some regression in the finale. They left the bases loaded in the first and again in the fifth, and in the seventh, after closing to within a run, left two more.
They also struck out 14 times.
But in the big picture, taking two-of-three on the road, constituted a positive weekend.
“Really good series,” said Alex Bregman. “Two good wins. My takeaway from this series is that, offensively, we’re in a good spot. We’re in a lot better spot than we were. We’re putting pressure on the defense, we’re running the bases, we’re on base pretty much every inning, guys are squaring it up line-to-line.
“Obviously we wanted to come away with a win tonight. But here down the stretch, we’ve got six games left and it’s ‘next pitch’ mentality. That’s it.”
The Red Sox dug themselves a 3-0 hole in the first when rookie Connelly Early couldn’t command nearly as well in his third major league start as he did in his first two. Two first-inning walks proved highly costly as both directly resulted in runs.
The Sox never led after that, though they threatened. But the inability to capitalize more fully on two bases-loaded chances, plus some questionable baserunning, kept them chasing from behind until the Rays pulled away with three in the eighth.
Boston leads its closest wild card pursuers by just a game, but because the Red Sox win the tiebreaker with both Cleveland and Houston, the cushion is really two games with six to play.
Loosely translated, if the Sox play .500 ball in the final week (3-3), either the Guardians or Astros will need to go 5-1 to overtake the Sox. Even if the Sox are just 2-4, Cleveland and Houston would have to go 4-2 to knock them out of the postseason race.
Put more succinctly, the Red Sox’ magic number is down to five.
“We’re in a good position,” said Alex Cora. “I know the season doesn’t end tonight, but we’re in a good spot.”
As has been the case for some time, the Red Sox are in charge of their own fate. If they can play .500 for the final week, they’ll likely be taking part in the wild card round; if they can four of the last six, they almost certainly will be.
“Can’t sit and dwell on today,” concluded Bregman. “It’s way too late in the year. We’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to keep pushing forward, get a good off-day and get ready to go for Toronto. That’s it — plain and simple.”
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