Red Sox Manager Alex Cora knows his team missed a chance to make a playoff run. “Let’s put it that way. You look around, you look at teams that are fighting…we had it right there and we blew it.” Michael Wyke/Associated Press

TORONTO — What had seemed obvious for some time now became certified shortly after 9:40 p.m. Wednesday night: when the regular season ends Sunday night, the Red Sox will be free of any October commitments.

Yet another second-half collapse had left them with the slimmest of hopes in recent weeks. They had circled their second-to-last home series of the year with Minnesota as their “Last Stand.” Sweep the Twins, went the thinking, and the last week might become very interesting.

The problem was, the Sox lost the opener in excruciating fashion, squandering scoring chance after scoring chance. So when the Sox valiantly rebounded to sweep a doubleheader from the Twins on Sunday, and won twice more in Toronto, it seemed they were merely postponing the inevitable.

So when Vaughn Grissom took a called third strike in the top of the ninth, reality struck in the form of a 6-1 loss. That, coupled with wins by Kansas City and Detroit, helped seal the Red Sox’s fate.

“I’m not happy, but it’s very quiet (in the clubhouse), which is good,” said Red Sox’s Manager Alex Cora. “Like I’ve been saying all along, outside of the walls here, nobody expected us to play all the way until now, meaningful games. Our goal was to make it to the playoffs and it didn’t happen. But it’s a good learning experience for those kids. Obviously, it’s going to be a different group next year. But for them to think that they were almost there…

“I mean, at one point, it felt like we were a playoff-caliber team and then, we just missed the opportunity. Let’s put it that way. You look around, you look at teams that are fighting…we had it right there and we blew it.”

Indeed, heading into the All-Star break, the Red Sox seemed well positioned to make the postseason for the first time since 2021. They were 10 games over .500 and just a handful of games out of first in their own division. But a disastrous road trip to start the second half – they were swept the Dodgers and lost two out of three in Colorado – seemed to send the Sox on a downward spiral.

From Aug. 23 through Wednesday night, the Sox were just 13-18. What made that downturn tougher to accept was that so many teams in front of them – led by Kansas City and Minnesota – struggled mightily, too. But deep in their own issues, the Sox couldn’t take advantage.

“Look at the Tigers and what they’ve done,” said Cora, pointing to the one team that seized the opportunity to make up ground. “They took advantage. They played good baseball. In this game, you have to take advantage of the opportunities, you have to be consistent. And since the All-Star break, we were very inconsistent. When we pitched, we didn’t hit; when we hit, we didn’t pitch. Overall, since L.A., we never got it going.”

Until the four-game winning streak they carried into Wednesday, the Sox proved incapable of sustaining any forward momentum. Indeed, that modest streak, which came too late to save them, was their longest since the first week of July.

In the clubhouse, morose as it was, the attitude was a tad more defiant.

Red Sox’s outfielder Jarren Duran, who hit is his league-leading 48th double on Wednesday, said of Boston’s season, “We made a good run. It’s just baseball – we ran into some slumps that didn’t help us.” Paul Sancya/Associated Press

“I thought we had a pretty good year, man,” said Red Sox’s outfielder Jarren Duran, who added to his major-league leading doubles total with his 48th of the season to go along with an infield hit. “We made a good run. It’s just baseball – we ran into some slumps that didn’t help us. But at the end of the day, I’m proud of what this clubhouse was able to do and what we accomplished. It’s a good building block for next year and I’m really proud of this team.

“(Reaching the postseason) is everybody’s dream. With what we had, we did so much. I’m so proud. I’m always hungry for that next step. But what we have in this clubhouse is special. I know there’s a lot of people who don’t see it, but I see the behind-the-scenes and I’m really with where we’re at and what we’re going to accomplish.”

Improving the roster will critical to take the next step. The team must bolster its rotation with a front-line starter, add some right-handed power and build out the back end of a reconfigured bullpen.

Progress was made, with Duran becoming a genuine star, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu hinting at the promise of more, and a rotation which featured three controllable starters each notching 30 or more starts.

But that’s for the offseason. For now, the Red Sox will be spectators to a postseason that seemed highly attainable not long ago, only to be snatched away by their own underperformance.

In that quiet clubhouse, that regret was left unspoken, but unmistakable.