The Sox are now five games behind the Twins for the third and final Wild Card spot. For practical purposes, however, that gap is six games, since the best the Sox can do to end the season series is a tie with the Twins – and Minnesota has the advantage in the second tiebreaker (a division record).

With eight games remaining, the idea that the Sox could go 6-2, 7-1 or 8-0 — while the Twins, Tigers and Mariners all collapse completely — is too far-fetched. There are no realistic predictions for October baseball. At 76-78, the Sox can stop talking about playoff aspirations and start thinking about consolation prizes (finishing at or above .500? Avoiding last place in the AL East?).

While outfielder Tyler O’Neill said the remaining eight games are a matter of life or death, it would be more accurate to say the postseason is now a lost cause.

It didn’t have to turn out this way. In fact, you can argue that the season shouldn’t have ended this way, considering how the Sox have played the last four weeks.

The performance of the pitchers — and especially the rotation — was such that the Red Sox should be looking down on their rivals for the second wild-card spot, not up to them. Friday’s loss underscored that.

Right-hander Richard Fitts contributed to a great run by the team’s rotation, throwing five shutout innings. The rookie has begun his major league career with three consecutive appearances of at least five innings and no earned runs – something only one other pitcher in major league history has accomplished (Andrew Abbott of the Reds in 2023).

Fitts’ performance on Friday was no outlier. Over the last 24 games, the Sox rotation has a 2.56 ERA. In 15 of those games, the starter has pitched at least five innings and allowed no more than two runs – usually a recipe for success.

The first 49 times a Sox starter reached that mark this year — five innings or more, two runs or less — the team went 37-12 (.755). In the last 16 such games, the team is now a shockingly unsuccessful 7-9.

How big is that difference? Had the team maintained its pattern of winning about three of four of those games, it would have had a 12-4 record. That’s a five-game difference from what actually happened – enough to put them neck-and-neck with the Twins and overtake Detroit and Seattle.

But of course that didn’t happen. The offensive went ice cold in a perpetual cold spell.

On Friday, the Sox struck out 20 times — the most in team history — while hitting 1 of 19 runners in scoring position and leaving 17 runners on base. That losing streak continued a months-long pattern that has resulted in the team striking out in 29 percent of its batting appearances in September, the team’s highest single-month strikeout rate in franchise history.

And so the Sox have lost numerous games they could have won, in a way that has left them behind in the race for the expanded playoffs.

“It’s hard to believe right now that we’re playing this offensively,” said shortstop Trevor Story. “It’s just hard to imagine it, because I know what kind of guys we have, what kind of hitters we have. But we’re in a slump right now that we can’t get rid of.”

“The staff, everyone who throws the ball has done a great job,” he added. “They’ve given us a lot of opportunities to win games. We just haven’t found a way to get the big hit and just get it done. I think earlier in the year we found a way to get it done. Now we just can’t do it.”

Of course, the team’s pitiful performance since the All-Star break (23-36 – a winning percentage of .390) cannot be attributed solely to one area of ​​the roster.

While the offensive collapse was the dominant theme in September, the rotation struggled to deliver innings at other times, and the bullpen (with a team-record 16 blown saves since the All-Star break) exhibited persistent deficiencies.

“I think everyone is frustrated. We’re not going to compartmentalize this,” manager Alex Cora said. “As a team, we’ve been struggling since LA.”

Ultimately, those difficulties proved insurmountable, and now, with just over a week left until the end of the season, the Sox need to be motivated by something other than the standings.

“We have to keep going, be there tomorrow and do the same thing we’ve done since day one: play hard, regardless of the result,” Cora said.

Ultimately, the results are virtually meaningless until 2025.

Alex Speier can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @alexspeier.