The Boston Red Sox returned home from their longest road trip of the season with a 5-5 record after losing the first two games in Toronto. The pitching has been much improved since the arrival of new pitching coach Carl Willis at the start of the trip. Sox starters have given up three or fewer runs in seven of the last eight games, lowering the team’s ERA to 4.64.

That’s still one of the highest in the American League, but a far cry from what it was when the team hit the road back on May 7.

Boston Red Sox Manager John Farrell is trying to figure out his pitching rotation for the second half of the season. The Associated Press

That pitching has kept the Sox in most games. Now, they just need to start scoring runs.

It’s baffling how a team with so many offensive weapons has gone this cold at the plate. Brock Holt is the only hitter on the team with a batting average above .300. He’s one of only six players on the team with an on-base percentage that’s better than the league average (.315).

They’re just not getting on base enough. But when they are, they’re getting stranded. The Sox are hitting a paltry .203 with runners in scoring position. Boston is averaging 2.38 runs per game in May.

Throughout April, we moaned about the team’s poor pitching and how it needed some sort of spark to get on track. Maybe the new coach is providing it. Now the offense clearly needs that same sort of jolt.

After they lost the first two games on the road trip, the Sox held a players-only meeting. Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz addressed their teammates, imploring them not to lose hope after a poor start. General Manager Ben Cherington made the bold move of demoting Allen Craig and calling up Jackie Bradley, Jr.

Bradley is 0 for 11 since the call-up – not the spark the team is looking for.

So what’s the next move? It may be time to call up Rusney Castillo from Pawtucket. He’s feeling good enough to hit Triple-A pitching, with 15 hits in his last 46 at bats. He hit two home runs (along with a double) Friday night, went 3 for 7 in a 14-inning game Saturday. He also stole a base Sunday.

The knock against Castillo is that he’s another right-handed hitter. The Sox are right-handed heavy, which was a big reason the Bradley call-up made sense.

Yet all those right-handed hitters aren’t helping the team against left-handed pitching. The Sox are hitting just .193 against lefties this season. It’s gotten so bad that teams are rearranging their pitching rotations to line up left-handers against the Sox. Seattle started three southpaws in the four-game series over the weekend and won two of them.

The organization acted quickly to address the April pitching woes by releasing their pitching coach. They don’t have a similar move to help the offense. Chili Davis is new this season and is well-respected by players and management.

So any turnaround at the plate will come from the hitters themselves.

“I don’t know if we’re looking at a complete lineup shakeup,” Farrell told reporters in Seattle on Sunday. “We need guys just to perform as they’ve done for many years. Nothing more, but (they must) perform like they’ve done over a long track record at the major league level.”

The good news in all of this is that they Sox are only 31/2 games back in the AL East. Every team in the division has flaws, which is why three of Boston’s four divisional rivals have losing records over the last 10 games. The division is there for the taking, and probably will be for most of the season.

The Sox have time and good talent. Maybe a spark from Rusney Castillo will help. It’s still “early,” but it won’t stay that way long.

Tom Caron is the studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.

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