Bennett continues to boost rotation as Sox's hitters flounder with RISP

BOSTON -- Jake Bennett positioned himself to be the story on Wednesday night at Fenway Park.

Bennett -- Boston’s No. 6 prospect, per MLB Pipeline -- has supplanted Bryan Bello (optioned to Triple-A Worcester on June 5) in the rotation, and the lefty held the Blue Jays to three hits and two runs while walking none and striking out five in 5 1/3 innings.

But the story became the one the Red Sox and their fans have begrudgingly relived many times over through the first 71 games of the season. It was another frustration-filled night for the offense -- particularly with runners in scoring position, and the result was a 3-0 loss to the Blue Jays.

After going 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position while leaving 13 on base in Tuesday’s 6-1 loss, the Sox went 0-for-12 while leaving 13 more on base on Wednesday in a loss that dropped them to 6-16 in the American League East and 12-24 at home.

“I think it's the same thing we've been through literally the whole season, because we always put the runners in scoring position, but we couldn't get the hit to drive in runs,” right fielder Wilyer Abreu said. “So we keep working hard. We’ll try to be better in those situations and try to drive the runs in.”

Boston (29-42) is 13 games below .500 for the first time since Sept. 22, 2020, trailing by six games in the AL Wild Card standings, with five teams between them and the final spot.

At some point, the front office is going to have to declare a lane -- buyer or seller -- heading into the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline.

If things stay the same, the direction seems fairly obvious.

“When the team's not winning, up top is looking at how they can make this team better,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa said. “So as individuals, everybody has to do their job, and if you're not doing your job, you know things are probably going to start happening. So I think individually that urgency is going to start coming, and you can't even look at that right now. You’ve just got to look at whatever we can do to win games.”

What would help most is for some hits to start falling with runners in scoring position. It started happening in May, then stopped again in recent weeks.

Are players trying too hard to make it happen once a runner gets into scoring position?

“I just think pressing in general,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “They want it bad. You can feel the frustration. They know we're getting the chances, they're working hard at it, and we're getting in some spots and not getting the hit. Then, we'll have a stretch where it will come.”

The last two nights have been hard for the players to endure, seeing a pair of winnable games slip away.

“Yeah, it's tough,” said Kiner-Falefa, who reached base three times and stole two bases. “I feel like it's almost getting to the point where it's like the moment those at-bats come up, there's almost more pressure, just because you're just almost pressing a little bit to come through for the team, just because it's almost rare to come through.”

There is only so much lineup juggling Tracy can do. Other than Ceddanne Rafaela, Abreu, Willson Contreras and, at times, Jarren Duran, Boston hasn’t received production from many places this season. Roman Anthony, who some projected to be a breakout star this season, hasn’t played since May 4 due a partially torn tendon in his right hand/wrist. His return timetable remains unclear.

“I don’t think we have any avenue for a radical change,” Tracy said. “We'll definitely look at it and see, but this is similar to when I first got here. Big picture, we’ve just got to get the group going again and get them online, start swinging the bat, and hopefully enjoy a good stretch.”

That good stretch has been elusive. There have been hints of it at times, but the club hasn’t won more than three games in a row all season.

Kiner-Falefa, a well-traveled veteran, does see a path for success. But there would have to be a dramatic turnaround for it to be this season. Bennett’s performance was another example of the team’s stable of young arms.

“They're a really good group of pitchers, and I think having those guys around for the long run, I believe in this core winning a championship with all the pitching that they have and Roman, Marcelo [Mayer] and so on,” Kiner-Falefa said. “So it's a good group of young talent.”