Boston Red Sox
After posting just five losses over a 44-day stretch between July and early August, the Red Sox have now lost five-straight games in the last five games.
Chad Tracy and the Red Sox are stumbling once again. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
August 13, 2026 | 7:41 AM
5 minutes to read
The Red Sox’ scorching stretch has officially cooled off.
After posting just five losses over a 44-day stretch between July and early August, the Red Sox have now lost five straight games in the last five games.
Boston’s losing skid continued on Wednesday after a frustrating 6-4 loss to the Blue Jays. As disheartening as the Red Sox’ play was for the first three months of the season, this marks just the second time this year that Boston has lost five games in a row.
To further twist the knife, all five of those losses have come with the tying run either on base or up at the plate — with Boston unable to deliver against two teams outside of the playoff picture in the Athletics and Blue Jays.
A five-game slide doesn’t undo weeks of dominance from Chad Tracy’s club. But there have been several concerning trends that have sprouted up over this recent downturn.
Regression at the plate
An uptick in offense has been the key conduit in Boston’s mid-season surge, with the Red Sox averaging 5.6 runs per game over a 37-game stretch — including 20 games where Boston scored six or more runs.
But in its last five games, Boston is only averaging 2.8 runs per game — with several key cogs in the Red Sox’ lineup laboring.
Despite clubbing a solo shot on Wednesday, Willson Contreras has labored for weeks, especially after taking a pitch to the side of the head in Los Angeles on July 31.
Caleb Durbin hasn’t been sidelined since re-aggravating an ailing pinkie finger, but he also hasn’t been comfortable at the plate in recent days.
Even the addition of Adley Rutschman in the heart of Boston’s lineup hasn’t alleviated the Red Sox’ struggles — with issues with runners in scoring position looming large.
During Boston’s recent nine-game win streak from July 29 – August 7, Boston was batting .360 with runners in scoring position. But over its last five games, Boston is only batting .119 with runners in scoring position — and that dreadful stat actually received a lift late after the Red Sox tacked on a few runs in the top of the ninth to make things interesting on Wednesday.
In total, Boston has left 43 runners on base over their last five games.
Rutschman’s addition and Roman Anthony’s potential return later this month or in September bode well for Boston down the stretch. But the Red Sox are going to need to capitalize on their chances with men on base in order to generate some breathing room and take some of the pressure off their pitching staff.
Regression (and injury concerns) in the bullpen
Aside from Jake Bennett seemingly hitting a bit of a speed bump with three runs allowed in four straight starts, Boston’s rotation has largely held its own over the last few weeks.
But the same can’t be said for the bullpen, which has been a pillar of strength for this club all summer long.
It was a night to forget for righty Tyron Guerrero on Wednesday — who saw his ERA balloon from 2.03 to 3.19 courtesy of a single disastrous outing in Toronto.
After allowing just three total earned runs over the previous 11 weeks, the 6-foot-8 righty was tagged for four total earned runs against the Blue Jays.
https://twitter.com/BlueJays/status/2087715064572780928%E2%80%8B
Guerrero stands as one of several reliable arms in the back end of Boston’s bullpen who have had ill-timed setbacks for a Red Sox team in desperate need of steadying results.
Aroldis Chapman has allowed runs in back-to-back outings against the White Sox and A’s — getting tagged with the loss in Boston’s 4-3 setback on Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park.
Set-up man Garrett Whitlock also allowed the game-tying run in the eighth inning of that same game against the A’s, with the righty failing to appear in a game since then.
The decision to turn to Guerrero in the eighth inning on Wednesday was an odd one for Tracy, given that the righty pitched the previous day in Toronto.
But postgame, Tracy revealed that Whitlock was unavailable on Wednesday due to elbow inflammation that could require an IL stint.
“Been throwing a lot and warmed up a lot, which has been a big thing. Tightened up on me after warming up [Tuesday] night,” Whitlock said postgame, per Tim Healey of The Boston Globe. “Not as much on-and-off. It’s been building. I would say that’s probably the better word. So it’s just one of those things. I know Trace [has referred to Whitlock in recent weeks as ‘beat up’ from pitching a lot]. It was kind of gradually getting that way, and then it’s getting to a pretty big point.
“I don’t think there’s anything structurally wrong with it. Obviously, I’m sure there’s probably a lot of inflammation in there, but my concern for need of any drastic measures is very low.”
If Whitlock needs to spend time on the IL — and Chapman wears down — things could spiral in a hurry for Boston’s usually stout relief corps.
Critical miscues
As putrid as Boston’s offense was for the first few months of the season, the 2026 Red Sox have been a team that could still hang their collective hat on sound defense and effective pitching.
But one of those hallmarks has eroded as of late, with some critical defensive gaffes hindering Boston at the worst possible times.
It hasn’t all been bad, as evidenced by Wilyer Abreu’s sliding grab and heads-up throw to first that both saved at least one run and ended the bottom of the fifth inning with a timely double play on Wednesday.
But that very same game also featured a brutal defensive mistake from Willson Contreras — who dropped a ball in foul territory in the bottom of the eighth inning. It should have been a reassuring first out for Guerrero and the Red Sox, especially with two Blue Jays already on base.
Instead, that flub gave Toronto new life, with Kazuma Okamoto making Boston pay by ending that at-bat with an RBI single into left field — making it a 2-1 game. Things snowballed from there, with Guerrero’s subsequent meltdown putting things out of reach for Tracy’s club.
Willson Contreras dropped a foul ball that would have been an infield fly rule if fair and Kazuma Okamoto immediately drove in the go-ahead run pic.twitter.com/hndvqzW5df
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 13, 2026
Boston has been prone to some poor defensive plays as of late, with potential Gold Glove frontrunner Caleb Durbin booting a potential double play on Tuesday that eventually allowed two unearned runs to cross the plate.
As a whole, the Red Sox are simply playing poor fundamental baseball during this stretch — be it forgetting how many outs are in an inning, base-running stumbles like Ceddanne Rafaela trying to take two bases off a wild pitch on Wednesday, and the aforementioned lapses in execution with runners on base.
The Red Sox still sit comfortably in a playoff spot, with FanGraphs tabulating Boston with a 91 percent chance of playing baseball in October. And all things considered, a step back was inevitable for a team that looked unstoppable just a week ago.
But with hopes of a divisional title slipping away and the odds of hosting a Wild-Card round also dimming, Boston needs to right the ship fast as the calendar starts flipping to the fall.
“We’re pretty battle-tested at this point,” Tracy said. “You’re probably going to go through a rough patch. We’re going through it now. We got to fight our way out of it.”
Tracy on this rough patch: “We’re pretty battle tested… we gotta fight our way out of it.”
On Whitlock: “He’s dealing with a little bit of inflammation in his elbow… it’s been a hit and miss thing that’s come about…”
presented by @WBMasonCo 🤝 pic.twitter.com/tCEXpB9q6f
— NESN (@NESN) August 13, 2026
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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