Boston in 'a bit of a stretch' as Bello, bats, gloves can't sync up

NEW YORK – Last Wednesday, Red Sox right-hander Brayan Bello had his best outing of the season, throwing a season-high eight innings without allowing a run against the Blue Jays.

That success on the mound at Fenway Park did not carry over into Monday’s 4-1 loss to the Mets at Citi Field. The Red Sox have lost three consecutive games and find themselves 4 1/2 games behind the Royals for the third and final Wild Card spot in the American League. The Royals lost their game to the Guardians, 4-2, on the same day.

“We are not playing well right now. It’s not going our way right now,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We have to show up tomorrow and try to win a game. We are running out of time. Let’s put it that way. I know what the other teams are doing. They are not playing well either, but the days we don’t take advantage of it are wasted days. So we have to find a way to win a game.”

Bello left the game after five innings and allowed all four runs. He had one easy inning, which was his final frame in which he retired the side in order.

It didn’t help that the team played some shaky defense behind him. In the third inning, with Francisco Lindor on first, Brandon Nimmo hit what looked like a line drive to center fielder Jarren Duran, but the ball went over Duran’s head and that allowed Lindor to score all the way from first to make it a 2-1 game in favor of the Mets.

“Duran is the best defensive center fielder in the league. He is going to make mistakes sometimes,” Cora said. “For me, he was trying to make a play. Bad read and he didn’t make the play. That’s going to happen.”

The following inning, after DJ Stewart reached base on a single, Luis Torrens doubled down the left-field line. Left fielder Tyler O'Neill didn’t field the ball cleanly, allowing Stewart to score all the way from first to make it a 3-1 game. O’Neill was charged with an error.

“[The ball] bounced a little differently off the dirt. It kind of kicked off me,” O’Neill said. “It went off the end of my glove. I tried to regroup and rally it in as quickly as I could.”

Pairing with the unsteadiness in the field, Boston’s offense continues to struggle. In their past 24 games entering Monday, the Red Sox posted a .229/.288/.385 slash line (.672 OPS) with 29 home runs and 96 RBIs. The team was 9-15 during that stretch.

The bats weren't any better against Mets right-hander Luis Severino, who pitched seven innings and allowed one run on six hits and two walks.

“He has good stuff. He has two really good fastballs, a few different breaking balls. He showed it off tonight,” O’Neill said.

The Red Sox scored their only run off Severino in the third inning, when Ceddanne Rafaela scored on a single off the bat of Duran. Boston had other chances to score off Severino, but couldn’t get the job done.

In the second inning, the team had runners on first and second with one out, but Connor Wong hit into a double play to end the threat. Four innings later, Boston had runners on first and second with two outs, but Rafael Devers flew out to Nimmo in center field to end the frame.

“We are going through a bit of a stretch right now,” O’Neill said. “We need to score some more runs out there. The pitchers are giving us a chance by keeping those runs off the board. We just have to find ways to [score runs].”