BOSTON -- The baseball season is long, and a lot can change in 52 games. But with the calendar flipped to August, the Red Sox are left with less than two months to turn things around if they aim to return to the postseason and defend their World Series title.

Starting the month being swept at home by the division-rival Rays just ahead of a series against the Yankees in New York isn’t what they had planned. 

“We’ve got a big challenge coming up this weekend, and if we’re going to be involved in whatever talk for the playoffs, it better start tomorrow,” manager Alex Cora said after Boston's 9-4 loss to Tampa Bay. 

This scenario didn’t seem all that likely just a week ago. The Red Sox went 3-2 against the Rays in St. Petersburg, then won the first three games at home against the Yankees. They have hit a four-game skid, though, their loss to the Yankees on Sunday followed by three straight to the Rays.

As they head to New York, they are 10 1/2 games behind the first-place Yankees and 3 1/2 games out of the American League Wild Card spot. 

“[We took] three steps back,” Cora said. “That can’t happen. Can’t happen. Obviously, it’s Aug. 1, 2 -- whatever it is -- and we don’t like where we’re at. And it seems like right now, the last few days, it wasn’t a great brand of baseball. ... We’ve got to be better at home, we’ve got to better in these conditions, we’ve got to be better against everybody. And we’re not doing that right now.”

Dropping games to these opponents particularly stings. 

“I think it might be probably the most disappointing losses of the season so far,” said Xander Bogaerts, who plated three of the four runs on Thursday with a pair of homers. “It’s a crucial time, and it’s a time that we need to win as much. It feels like getting one win is really hard to come by right now. We’ve got to find a way to forget these last few games, try to remember the good times and try to go on a run again.”

The Red Sox were 57-24 at Fenway Park in their 2018 World Series-winning season. This year they are 27-29 at home, including 1-8 against the Rays. Tampa Bay became the first team to capture eight wins in Boston during a single season since the 1966 Orioles.

“You never want that to happen,” Mitch Moreland said. “Fenway Park’s supposed to be for us.”

Instead it was the Rays heading home with momentum as the Red Sox travel to the Bronx looking for answers.

“It’s tough to win here, period,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It’s tough to win a series here, let alone do what we just accomplished. We should feel good about ourselves.”

Boston's pitchers were heavily hit by an aggressive Tampa Bay lineup on Thursday. Starter Andrew Cashner allowed seven runs with just one strikeout in 5 2/3 innings. The Rays belted home runs off Colten Brewer and Heath Hembree en route to a 12-hit evening.

“It is concerning,” Cora said of the pitching. “I’ve been talking about this the whole time -- we need to get better. And it sounds like I say the same thing for 100 days. We trust the group, we trust these guys, but we have to execute. We can talk about adjustments, attacking guys, but at the end, we have to go out and do it. … We don’t keep the ball in the ballpark. It was a rough one.”

It's not as though the Red Sox didn’t have their chances. They connected for 10 hits, but went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Andrew Benintendi hit three doubles and never scored.

“We didn’t execute,” Cora said. “I always say that offense is the one that brings energy. … I think there were a few plays that we don’t play that way. You saw it throughout the week, throughout the series. We’ll talk to them. We’ll address it, because that can’t happen. We’ve got to be better.

“It’s not that we have to fake energy, because you’re still in the big leagues and there’s not too many people in the world that are playing in the big leagues right now. It’s only, like, 750 of them. And I think the effort has to be there every day. You’re going to go through slumps, through struggles, but there’s a few things you can control, and it’s the effort. There are a few things that effort-wise, it didn’t look good.”

The Red Sox will look to strike a balance between staying locked into each game and acknowledging time is of the essence. Last year they played deep into the fall, and they know their performances have to improve if they want to compete in October.

“We’re not in April or May,” Bogaerts said. “We can’t lose a couple and [say], ‘Oh, we’re going to go on a nice run later on.’ Later on is almost there.”