BOSTON -- Kolten Wong’s trying, mystifying season continued on Sunday afternoon with the Trade Deadline on deck.

Wong, a top-flight second baseman having a tough year, missed a low feed from shortstop Willy Adames for a fifth-inning error that opened the door to five unearned runs, an early exit for starter Aaron Ashby and a 7-2 Brewers loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Next stop, Trade Deadline. Tuesday’s 5 p.m. CT Deadline lands about an hour before the first pitch of the Brewers’ next scheduled game in Pittsburgh. President of baseball operations David Stearns and senior vice president and GM Matt Arnold are back in Milwaukee working the phones while the team is on the road.

• Deadline special: Tues., 3-7 p.m. ET, MLB Network, MLB.com, MLB App

“Stearns is really aggressive making those moves and trying to push this team to get to the next level,” Wong said. “Whatever it’s going to take. I definitely don’t have any sense of him not pulling the trigger.”

Sunday’s series finale began with great promise, the Brewers having won seven of eight coming out of the All-Star break while scoring 55 runs in the victories. Hunter Renfroe started a four-hit afternoon with his sixth home run in nine games, a two-run shot off Sox starter Josh Winckowski in the second. Ashby carried a shutout and a lead into the fifth.

Both got away after a leadoff walk followed by a grounder to shortstop Willy Adames, whose feed to Wong covering second base was hard and low. Wong didn’t catch it, and the error loomed large when the Red Sox tallied four consecutive two-out run-scoring doubles later in the inning, turning a 2-0 Brewers lead into a 5-2 deficit.

Wong long ago established his credentials as one of baseball’s savviest defensive second basemen, winning back-to-back Gold Glove Awards in 2019-20 while with the Cardinals and ranking among the finalists in ‘21 in his first year with the Brewers. But this season, the metrics are not friendly. Going into Sunday, Statcast’s outs above average leaderboard had Wong at -9, or 265th out of 268 players.

He explained why the critical play of Sunday’s loss was tougher than it may have looked on TV.

“[Adames] is ranging to his right. He got on top of it, it was a sinker. I’m anticipating it to hit the ground,” Wong said. “It kind of carried a little more than I expected and it was one of those tough plays. I don’t think people understand that until they’re put in that situation. You expect one thing and it does the total opposite.”

It’s been one of those years.

“My defense just hasn’t been up to par where I expect it to be,” Wong said. “[Stuff] like that happens and you’re just frustrated. You expect to make those plays. You expect to be perfect. I made three errors in the past three seasons; to go from that to where I am now, it’s frustrating.”

What can he do to snap out of it?

“Just keep grinding,’ Wong said. “I can’t change how it’s been going. It’s just, finish strong. People know I’m a good defender. I don’t need to tell anybody that. I don’t need to go and change anybody’s mind. If they don’t believe it, then it is what it is. I know what I am. You’re going to go through slumps as a hitter and you’re going to go through slumps as a defender sometimes, and that’s just where I’m at.

“I’m just trying to keep pushing, keep my mind strong and know that regardless of what happens, I know I’m a good defender. I’m definitely one of the best in the league.”

The Brewers settled for taking two of three against the Red Sox following a 5-1 homestand, and they have been encouraged by their offensive output after weeks of looking like a team that could use a bat. The Crew tallied 11 more hits in a losing effort, but turned them into only two runs.

Could the recent production, fueled by Renfroe’s power and Christian Yelich’s success implementing a toe tap, impact their Deadline shopping list?

“I think winning games can impact it, certainly,” manager Craig Counsell said on Sunday morning. “The best thing we can do is win games. That’s our job. To win games puts our chances in a better place. That’s what we’re responsible for. I don’t think that David and Matt take a snapshot of five games or whatever and change decisions.”

Counsell had another message: Don’t be misled that with 60 games remaining, the regular season is getting short.

“What Atlanta did last year is a very fresh reminder that there is a lot of baseball left to be played and a lot can happen in 60 games,” Counsell said. “I think that should be a reminder to everybody. They won the World Series and they were under .500 at this point last year.”