Boston's bats needs to kick into postseason gear for stretch run 

BOSTON -- After an eruption by the bats on Monday night, the Red Sox thought the rejuvenation of their recently slumping offense was finally about to take place, and just in time for the critical final weeks of the regular season.

But on Tuesday, the bats reverted back to a recently familiar pattern of quiet in a 5-3 loss to Albert Suárez and the Orioles at Fenway Park.

Boston was able to generate just seven hits while striking out 13 times and generating only three walks.

With 17 games left, the Red Sox are four games behind the Twins in the race for the third American League Wild Card spot.

Hoping to build momentum from Monday’s 12-3 rout, the Red Sox instead never had a lead in this one and didn’t score until an RBI double by Triston Casas in the bottom of the fourth.

“It got to the point yesterday where we were in the dugout, kind of saying, ‘All right, let's save some for tomorrow’ kind of thing,” Casas said. “Yesterday was a barrage, for sure, of great swings, great at-bats. Almost a historic night. A lot of home runs, a lot of great swings.

“And the pitchers on their side made adjustments today like great baseball players do. That’s a really good team over there. Yesterday was a combination of our offense and a lack of execution on their part. And today, they did a little better job, for sure. They were hitting their spots. Their bullpen was solid. It was difficult not to score more runs today, but yesterday was almost an anomaly of a night.”

For the Red Sox to close the gap in the postseason race, they will need the offense to get back to what it was before Aug. 23.

Since that date, Boston is 6-12 with the following MLB rankings offensively during that 18-game stretch:

• .227 AVG (24th)
• .282 OBP (T-26th)
• .384 SLG (18th)
• 3.44 runs/game (28th)
• 20 HRs (T-10th)
• 1.11 HRs/game (T-18th)
• 61 RBIs (26th)
• 39 BBs (28th)
• 6.2% BB% (29th)
• 171 SOs (3rd most)
• 27.2% SO% (4th highest)

The strikeouts have been an issue all year, as only the Mariners (1,466 K’s) and Rockies (1,434) have more punchouts than Boston’s 1,405.

“It’s been the whole season. It’s who we have, the personnel that we have. But we have good hitters. We're not walking a lot lately, and that's a bad combination: a lot of strikeouts, no walks,” manager Alex Cora said.

“You have to earn your hits, right? We haven't been able to do that. We have to take a look at it -- if it's just swing-and-misses in the zone or we're expanding. We have to take a deep dive and see what has happened the last three or four weeks.”

The one near constant in the Boston attack this season has been Jarren Duran, but the leadoff man has just nine hits -- eight of them singles -- in his last 41 at-bats dating back to Aug. 31.

Rafael Devers, the team’s star slugger, has been battling discomfort in his shoulders and unable to produce at his expected level. The third baseman has a slash line of .200/.274/.273 in his last 15 games covering 55 at-bats. Of his 11 hits during that span, just two have been for extra bases.

Casas, one of Boston’s most impactful hitters in the second half of last season, hasn’t been able to get it going since coming back from a left rib cage injury that sidelined him from April 21-Aug. 15. Casas has taken 77 at-bats since his activation, hitting just two homers to go with a .697 OPS.

“I think we’ve all slumped together if you take a look at it,” Cora said. “When we were hot, everybody was hitting the ball all over the place, and it just happens that everybody is struggling at the same time.”

While the burden can’t be placed entirely on the offense for the last 17 games, a hitting resurgence is probably Boston’s best path to close the gap in the standings.

“Collectively, outside of yesterday, we’ve all kind of hit a skid at the same time, so we're hoping to all hit the other side of the pendulum for these last two weeks,” Casas said.

“It's going to be a great stretch of baseball down the road. We're focused on tomorrow, winning tomorrow, and learning from today. And trying to not repeat the same mistakes as today, and keep moving forward.”