Boston Red Sox stumble heading into All-Star break

First place is still in hand for the Boston Red Sox. The outlook heading into the All-Star break, however, is slightly less encouraging then it was seven days ago.

After picking up their 10th win in 11 games with a victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last Monday, the bottom dropped out for the Red Sox.

Boston dropped four of their last five games heading into the break, including a 5-4 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.

A little bit of everything contributed to the woes. A bullpen implosion in Saturday’s loss to the Phillies, allowing eight runs in the 8th inning. Throwing errors by a normally stout outfield. A barrage of bloop hits by the Angels in Wednesday’s loss.

Key hits eluded the Red Sox as well and they didn’t have quite the juice to overcome the deficiencies.

Boston Red Sox hot and cold at the plate

Boston arrived back in Boston with an eight-game home winning streak and began things off with a bang on Friday. An 11-5 victory was done with relative ease and life was rosy.

The victory was their ninth-straight at home, a streak in which they scored 65 runs over that span.

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Relative momentum was halted with the back-to-back tough losses against the Phillies. In Boston’s four losses to close out the season’s first-half, Boston only managed 13 runs.

Bats are bound to be silenced every now and then. The core of the lineup continues to produce and Christian Arroyo had three of Boston’s 11 hits on Sunday, marking his second multi-hit game since returning from the injured list.

And Kiké Hernández has solidified the leadoff spot, a troublesome spot for the Red Sox up until recently. Hernandez has hit safely in 11 of his last 14 games and has hit five home runs in those outings.

If those two can continue to produce and provide the occasional highlight — which has been plentiful the last few weeks — the Boston lineup will have very few concerns in regards to a starting nine.

Boston Red Sox: Shoring up the trouble spots

Shoring up the starting rotation is a must for Boston. Internally, help could be on the way as Chris Sale gets closer and closer to a return. Plus, there’s also Tanner Houck to consider.

The current starting five also found some more consistency behind Nathan Eovaldi and Nick Pivetta the last couple of weeks.

First base is still an issue on a day-to-day basis. Flashes of brilliance and output have shown on occasion but not enough to lock in any one player at that position.

Things for the Red Sox are not bleak. The standing reflect things are going better than expected. Contending was never out of the question but first-place in the A.L. East and tied for the best record in the American League are the good kind of surprising.

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Build off that success, fix the problems areas, and key in on the positives will make this recent stumble forgiven and forgotten. This little break will help, allowing for players to rejuvenate and gear up for what promises to be an exciting summer and fall for the Boston Red Sox.

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