SAN DIEGO — With their top three wild-card competitors suffering unlikely losses Sunday, the Boston Red Sox had a rare chance to control their own destiny.
They couldn’t capitalize, falling 3-1 to the San Diego Padres in the finale of a three-game series at Petco Park. The loss kept the Red Sox six games back of a playoff spot with 30 games remaining. Their Western trip continues Tuesday with the start of a two-game series at Colorado.
The scoreboard-watching Red Sox haven’t had much to smile at recently because the Rays, Indians and Athletics each won at least 18 of their last 30 games entering Saturday. But Sunday was different; each team fell to poor opponents – Tampa Bay to Baltimore, Cleveland to Kansas City and Oakland to San Francisco.
Instead of picking up a game on the rest of the crowd, the Sox fell in step with them, losing to a Padres team that’s out of the playoff race in the National League and played sloppy baseball all weekend. Starter Brian Johnson allowed three runs before recording an out and the offense ended up with only four hits in a rare showing of incompetence.
The Red Sox failed to finish off their sweep of the Padres, marking the fourth time since the All-Star break they won the first two games of a series before failing to secure a sweep. It was another missed chance at momentum for a team that has just one winning streak longer than five games this year.
“It’s always important (to finish off sweeps),” Manager Alex Cora said. “We’re running out of time. We took 2 of 3 and we played good baseball. We didn’t hit.”
The last two weeks have been relatively good for the Red Sox, who won a tough series in Cleveland and swept the O’s at home before getting swept by the Phillies in a quick two-game set. Boston got its momentum back at the end of last week, quickly finishing off a suspended game Thursday with a win against the Royals before beating San Diego in the first two out west.
Including Thursday’s continuation game, the Red Sox are 8-3 over their last 13 days after bottoming out Aug. 12 at eight games back in the playoff race. Despite the Rays, A’s and Indians going a combined 17-18 in that stretch, the Sox have been able to pick up only two games in two weeks, sitting six games behind Tampa Bay for the second spot entering an off day Monday.
Put another way, the Sox played at a .727 clip for the last two weeks and only got a quarter of the way to where they need to be to reach October. With 30 games to go, the odds simply aren’t in their favor.
If there’s a silver lining for the Sox, it’s that their opponents on the rest of the west-coast swing are very beatable. The Rockies have lost 5 of 7 and the Angels have dropped 6 of 7.
Add in the fact that the A’s are playing the Yankees, the Rays and Indians are facing each other and Tampa Bay is also facing the Astros over the next week and it looks like the Sox have a shot to do some damage before heading home. What happens in the next five games will be crucial as Cora and his group approach the final month of the season.
“We’re good. We’re not where we want to be but we’ll talk about it Sept. 1,” Cora said. “We’ll get there and see where we’re at. We’ll go from there.”
RAYS: Vince Naimoli, the original team owner, died at age 81, nearly five years after being diagnosed with an uncommon brain disorder.
Naimoili, a Tampa, Florida, businessman, was part of unsuccessful bids to purchase and relocate the Seattle Mariners and San Francisco Giants. But he landed an American League expansion franchise in 1995 that began play as the Devil Rays in 1998.
Naimoli ended the Tampa Bay region’s two-decade long pursuit to join Major League Baseball. He sold the club to a group led by the current Rays principal owner, Stuart Sternberg, in 2004 and relinquished control after the 2005 season.
Naimoli was often at odds with local business and civic leaders, and fueled a perception he was more interested in making money than winning. The club never won more than 70 games during his time in charge. It made an improbable run to the 2008 World Series.
BRAVES: Shortstop Dansby Swanson was activated from the 10-day injured list after being out since July 24 with a bruised right heel. Outfielder Adam Duvall was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett to make room for Swanson.
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