BOSTON -- Xander Bogaerts was trying to do too much with the game on the line on Saturday night at Fenway Park against the Yankees.

How else to explain Boston’s veteran leader trying to steal third with two on and two outs and J.D. Martinez at the plate in a tie game in the seventh and getting picked off by Aroldis Chapman?

• Box score

It is human nature for a player to force the action when a team is slumping.

Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Yankees handed the 56-59 Red Sox their seventh defeat in their last 10 games.

One of the biggest reasons for Boston’s current rut is that the team’s three All-Stars (Rafael Devers, Bogaerts and Martinez) are slumping at the same time.

If the Red Sox, who are 4 1/2 games back in the American League Wild Card standings with 47 games left in the season, are going to make a push to get into the playoffs, they need their big boppers to start bopping again.

“It’s tough. It’s the core of the lineup,” said Martinez. “We’ve got to hit. When you don’t, most of the time it’s tough to win games. But it’s on us. It’s on us to figure it out.”

Here are the grim numbers.

Since Aug. 3, Devers is 4-for-40 with a slash line of .100/.182/.200 with one homer and three RBIs. The slump started the day after he came off the injured list. It could be a combination of his timing being off and his right hamstring not being 100 percent.

Martinez’s slump has gone on the longest, though he provided a glimmer of hope with a big three-hit performance on Friday in which he tied it up in the bottom of the ninth with an RBI single. Since July 16, Martinez has slashed 145/.197/.203 with no homers and eight RBIs in 76 plate appearances. Martinez had a sore back that forced him to miss some time before and after the All-Star break, but timing -- or lack thereof -- appears to be his biggest issue. Martinez (nine homers, 46 RBIs) also isn’t launching the ball like he’s known for.

Then there is Bogaerts, who typically looks like he could roll out of bed and lace a base hit to center. Of late, it hasn’t looked that easy. Since July 29, Bogaerts has a line of .228/.262/.351 with one homer and six RBIs. Bogaerts (.306 average, .823 OPS in ’22) is likely just going through the slump that most hitters go through over the course of a long season.

In Saturday’s defeat, Boston’s big three combined on a 1-for-14 line.

The one hit felt big at the time. Bogaerts ripped a two-out double into the corner in left and Yankees manager Aaron Boone went to Chapman, who started his outing by giving the Red Sox a gift and plunking a left-handed batter in Alex Verdugo. How big a gift was it? Lefties are hitting .143 with a .451 OPS against Chapman this season.

Hoping to do something big, the right-handed-hitting Martinez didn’t have a chance. On a 1-0 pitch, Chapman snuffed out the attempted steal of third by Bogaerts.

“Yeah, I’m surprised [Bogaerts went], but you live with the sword, you die by the sword,” Martinez said. “If he would have stolen, it would have been second and third. It would have been a whole different situation. Then, all of a sudden, he’s scared to bounce something. It’s baseball. I’m not mad at him for doing that. It just happens.”

Considering the situation, Red Sox manager Alex Cora acknowledged it wasn’t the right play.

“We cannot get picked off there,” said Cora. “Obviously Chapman is slow to the plate and all that, but we’ve just got to let the game set there and let J.D. take his chances. Obviously [Bogaerts] is not perfect right?”

During his near decade with the Red Sox, you can probably count the mental mistakes Bogaerts has made with one hand, or two, at most.

And this one would have quickly been forgotten had Boston scored more than two runs.

The dam has to break for the three stars at some point, right?

“I think so. I don’t know how to say it, the water always goes back to the level,” said Martinez. “That’s a famous Spanish thing -- the tide goes up, the tide goes down but it always goes back to even. You can only keep these guys down for so long.”