The Boston Red Sox of the last four days haven't looked like the Red Sox fans have gotten used to over the last six weeks. Boston has lost four straight games, two against the Athletics and two against the Toronto Blue Jays, for the first time since June.
Boston has scored 10 runs over its last four games. Red Sox hitters have left an unbelievable 38 men on base. They've made three errors in the field. Their recent play looks a lot like it did in May when the entire lineup was getting horribly unlucky and couldn't string multiple hits together.
But the difference between May and now is that the Red Sox have proven that their offense can work. Boston isn't far removed from an historic 30-5 stretch between July and August to cement itself as a Wild Card contender — from the start of the streak on June 23 to August 12, the Red Sox have increased their playoff chances from 10.5 to 93.3 percent.
There's no reason to panic about the Sox's four recent losses. Boston has done too much winning against too many good teams to throw it all away for four gutsy, close ticks in the loss column.
Red Sox fans have no reason to panic over four recent losses
The Red Sox are going through a lot schedule-wise around the time of their slump. On August 6, the Sox played their longest game of the year and pulled off their best victory, beating the Chicago White Sox in 13 innings after falling behind six different times. The bats never quit and interim skipper Chad Tracy used every available reliever so he would've had to use a position player on the mound if the game went one more inning.
Boston is justifiably exhausted. It's played more innings than it should've in the last week and it's in the middle of its longest stretch of games without an off day this season. From August 4-19, the Red Sox play 16 straight games, and a 13-inning game so early in that stretch doesn't help their longevity.
Streaks and slumps are part of the ups and downs of baseball season, but that 15-game winning streak and 30-5 stretch were something different. Bad teams don't win 15 games in a row in this sport, but good teams sometimes hit a wall when they're tired (and banged up in some cases, like with Willson Contreras). Many factors have contributed to the Sox's momentum change, but they are by no means permanent.
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