Insane Stat Shows Why Red Sox Lost Five Straight Games originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
It hadn't been a pretty past five games for the Boston Red Sox prior to their win on Thursday afternoon against the Toronto Blue Jays, completely dominating Toronto on both sides of the baseball.
Prior to that, the Red Sox were playing like one of the more below-average teams in Major League Baseball once again, which some viewed as a bit concerning after their recent stretch.
The Red Sox have been just as polarizing as any team in the league this year, proving that they can win at any given moment, but also go on some bad stretches.
Playing the way they did for a 30-game stretch prior to this five-game skid was ridiculous, so it wasn't too surprising that things started to go south again. This is Major League Baseball at the end of the day, and things are going to happen.
However, there was one obvious reason the Red Sox struggled throughout those five games. It was recently brought up by Matt Betts that the Red Sox were 5-for-42 with runners in scoring position across those losses.
“Much of the poor performance in this series can be pinned on the offense. Through the first three games, the lineup is collectively 2-for-20 with runners in scoring position. When including the two losses to the Athletics over the weekend, Boston hitters are 5-for-42 with RISP,” Betts wrote.
Not capitalizing with runners in scoring position is as big of a problem as anything in Major League Baseball.
When teams have an opportunity to cash runs in, they have to find a way to do so. Throughout that stretch, the Red Sox were really good offensively.
There were times prior to that when this offense struggled a bit, though it's also important to note that when they were the best team in baseball for a month and a half, they were clicking on both sides of the ball.