Crawford's second-half struggles continue in finale 

KANSAS CITY -- Kutter Crawford is hitting a rough patch at the wrong time.

The 28-year-old righty has allowed five or more runs in four consecutive starts, with his latest outing leading to an 8-4 loss to the Royals on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium. Crawford allowed six runs and was unable to get out of the fourth inning as the Red Sox dropped to 1 1/2 games behind Kansas City for the third and final AL Wild Card spot.

It’s a concerning trend for Crawford, who was one of Boston’s most reliable arms in the first half of the season. He went into the All-Star break with eight straight outings of six or more innings, lowering his ERA to 3.04 after seven scoreless against the Royals on July 13.

But it has been downhill since.

Crawford’s ERA has ballooned to 4.11, and he has failed to go six innings in any of his four starts since the break. His 12 home runs given up in three outings prior to his start against the Royals were a record (since at least 1901), but he had a different problem against Kansas City:

Though Bobby Witt Jr. tagged Crawford for a solo homer in the first, after that, Crawford was able to keep Kansas City in the yard. It was his control that wavered. Crawford tied a season high with four walks, including an 11-pitch free pass to MJ Melendez that sparked the Royals’ five-run fourth inning.

“Four walks. Something he doesn’t do. And then the last two hitters he had them 0-2, right? Had Witt 0-2, his double down the line. Had the leadoff hitter 0-2, he was in a spot to put him away,” manager Alex Cora said. “Good at-bat by Melendez to start up the inning. 50-50 pitch right there [on ball four]. It was called a ball and we weren’t able to stop it.”

Crawford gets batters to 0-2 counts frequently -- it’s part of his game plan. He entered Wednesday by working 23.7% of batters to 0-2, which was 16th among players iwho have faced at least 400 batters. The White Sox’ Garrett Crochet (29.1%) leads the league.

“Leadoff walks are a Cardinal sin in this game,” Crawford said. “I tip my cap to [Melendez], he put together a really good at-bat. I thought I made some pitches and he fouled them off. I just couldn’t make that putaway pitch.

“I dug myself in the hole. And even in a couple of my [at-bats that] I did get ahead, they fouled off a bunch of good pitches. They grinded me out. But yeah, at the end of the day I can’t walk four guys.”

The recent dip in production from Crawford is troubling because of where the Red Sox are with their rotation. It was announced pregame that Nick Pivetta will be skipped in his next start after his velocity was down, and now Crawford, who has already set a career high with 131 1/3 innings pitched this season, is struggling to give the Red Sox a chance to win in the midst of a playoff race.

“It’s just a really rough stretch I’m going through right now,” Crawford said. “Probably the worst I’ve ever had in my career. But at the end of the day, we got to wake up tomorrow. We got to show up and just keep working.

“Body feels good. … I felt good, I’ve just been getting hit. So that’s kind of what makes it a little more frustrating. Feeling good, but still getting hit and giving up runs.”

Boston has been propelled by its explosive offense since the break, but it’s struggled to keep opponents off the scoreboard. The Red Sox are 29th in baseball with a 5.96 team ERA since the All-Star Game, with Crawford, Pivetta and Houck all hitting rough patches.

“I think as a staff right now, obviously, we’ve been struggling a little bit,” Crawford said. “Can’t say enough good things about the offense. Have been carrying us since the All-Star break. They’ve been swinging the [crap] out of it. As a staff we just got to get back to the drawing boards and just keep grinding. We’ll get over this hump.”

Despite the shaky starts, Boston still took two out of three from Kansas City, clinching the season series and playoff tiebreaker. The Red Sox have now won three straight series after dropping three in a row to begin the second half.

“We played well. You win two series on the road,” Cora said. “Now you go home and you got to take care of business.”