Red Sox Notes: Boston’s Offense Scuffling Through Wild-Card Race

The Boston Red Sox are in the daily battle of the wild-card race in the American League. That's a tough time for the offense to struggle.

After a resurgent extra-innings win on Friday night, the Detroit Tigers came back to win the series and defeated the Red Sox in a 4-1 victory on Sunday afternoon. Boston mustered just two runs over the final 18 innings of the series, dropping the slate during a consequential time of the pennant race.

Boston's more-than-capable lineup could not string together quality at-bats and lacked momentum. Alex Cora knows that's not a new trend for his ballclub in recent weeks.

"Right now, there's not much going on," Cora told reporters, per NESN's postgame coverage. "It's been going on for awhile. We just gotta regroup, reassess and go from there tomorrow. It's not about hitting the ball hard, right? We're not even doing that. We haven't walked in awhile. We gotta get back to dominating the strike zone. Pitches in the zone, hit them hard. When you start doing that, good things are gonna happen."

The group did not get the expected boost when Rafael Devers returned to the Red Sox lineup after consecutive days off to rest his shoulder. The Boston slugger went just 1-for-13 in the series.

"It's just a matter of time," Cora added. "He worked on a few things mechanically yesterday. Trying to stay inside the ball and drive it to left field. Like I said the other day, we haven't seen that in awhile. He did it today. That's a good sign."

Boston started the final month of the season with a loss. The final four weeks are upon the Red Sox, who face an uphill climb to restore their playoff path.

Here are more notes from Sunday's Red Sox-Tigers game:

-- The Red Sox have not won a series since they took two of three games from the Houston Astros from Aug. 19-21.

-- Criswell tallied his fifth scoreless outing of the season for the Red Sox.

-- With the Minnesota Twins defeating the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday, Boston falls five games behind for the final American League playoff spot.

-- The Red Sox scored just two combined runs in their two losses of the series in Detroit.

-- The ballclub falls to 1-6 on Sundays since the All-Star break.

-- Boston fell to 15-26 on the season when the lineup does not hit a home run.

-- The Red Sox continue a six-game road trip in New York to open a series with the Mets on Monday. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. ET. You can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.