NEW YORK – The Red Sox are fading fast from the American League Wild Card race, and one can look at the offense as to why they lost to the Mets, 7-2, on Tuesday night at Citi Field.

Boston has lost four consecutive games and finds itself five games behind the Royals for the third and final Wild Card berth in the AL, pending the results of Kansas City’s game against the Guardians.

Excluding Tuesday’s game, the Red Sox had a .228/.288/.380 slash line with 29 home runs and 99 runs scored in their last 25 games. The offense was held mostly quiet by left-hander David Peterson. They tried to spoil his 29th birthday, but they went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and struck out 11 times vs. the southpaw (15 overall).

The Red Sox scored their only run off Peterson in the fifth, when Nick Sogard singled to center to drive in Masataka Yoshida.

Red Sox right-hander Kutter Crawford pitched well enough to win the game. He allowed one hit in six innings, but the hit he allowed in the third inning proved costly. With Jeff McNeil on first, Crawford surrendered a two-run homer to Francisco Lindor to give New York a two-run lead.

After Crawford exited the game, right-hander Justin Slaten pitched the seventh and allowed a solo homer to Mark Vientos, which proved to be the difference in the game. Overall, the bullpen allowed five runs.