McAdam: Red Sox offense showing trouble signs

It wasn't realistic to expect the Red Sox to continue to average nearly seven runs per game the way they were as recently as a week ago. Even the most elite lineups would find that difficult to sustain, and sure enough, in the last week, the offense has experienced some regression.

The lineup is still a strong one, but as the Sox have dropped four-of-six since last Saturday, a number of issues have cropped up.

To wit:

1. For now, lefties are giving the lineup difficulty.

Blake Snell ate up the Sox for the first five innings, limiting them an infield hit and no runs. The other night at Rogers Centre, Toronto's J.A. Happ kept them a single run on four hits over seven innings. And, of course, last Saturday night in Oakland, Sean Manaea no-hit them.

All three were lefties and all three gave the Sox trouble. Taking a look at the Red Sox lineup, it's not hard to figure out why. While righties Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez and Hanley Ramirez have been hitting everything in sight, a number of lefty swingers, part of the everyday lineup, are scuffling. Andrew Benintendi is hitting .229 and slugging .373. Jackie Bradley Jr. has a slash line of .205/.295/.333.

As a team, the Red Sox went into Friday's game with just three extra-base hits against left-handed starters this season. And against lefty starters as a team, the Sox came in batting just .202 with a .546 OPS.

2. The Sox have been striking out at an alarming rate.

For much of the first three or so weeks of the season, the Red Sox were making consistent contact at the plate, putting the ball in play with regularity. For the longest time, they were last in strikeouts as a team.

But lately, that's changed considerably. Over the last six games, they've fanned at least nine times in every game, including a season-high 13 times in Toronto on Tuesday night. On Friday night, they struck out 11 more times, including the two final outs of the game with the potential tying run on base.

"We're striking out too much lately and it's becoming an issue,'' said a displeased Alex Cora. "Lately, there's been a lot of strikeouts. Strikeouts (are only one out), but there are certain situations where we have to put the ball in play. We showed that we can do that early (in the season). Now, offensively, we're expanding (the zone). We've got to make adjustments.

3. Their situational hitting has declined.

Going hand in hand with the increase in strikeouts is the team's dropoff with two strikes, or, for that matter, with two outs.

There were rallies earlier in the season when the Sox managed to string together a bunch of hits with two outs. Or, showed the ability to battle in at-bats and came up with hits with two strikes.

Lately, that's been absent and it's showing up in their inability to come through with RISP. They were 3-for-12 with RISP, and failed to take advantage of putting the leadoff man on in the seventh and ninth innings.

The Sox found the perfect combination of aggressiveness and discipline not long ago. Lately, they've displayed a tendency to chase pitches and help out the pitcher, rather than themselves.