Their losing streak is at a season-high four games, swept by the Tampa Bay Rays, their deficit in the division the biggest since mid-June, you might have expected the Red Sox to exhibit some anger following a 3-2 loss at Tropicana Field, one that ended with the tying run just 90 feet from home plate.
Guess again.
If there's any frustration with the Sox, they're doing a bang-up job of keeping it hidden.
This kind of calm can rub fans the wrong way. Fans want players to react as they do -- with emotion. The Sox came into the Trop Friday for a big series with a team close on their heels and promptly lost all three.
So where was the rage, or least the exasperation with how the things turned out?
Nowhere to be found, as it turns out.
Certainly, not from starting pitcher Nick Pivetta, who quickly made it be known: "I don't think there's room for panic right now. We've played incredible baseball up to this point.''
And not from J.D. Martinez, who was 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and made the final out with two on and the Sox down by a run.
"We're kind of grinding right now,'' shrugged Martinez.
And certainly not from manager Alex Cora. Especially Alex Cora.
If you tuned into Cora's post-game Zoom call with reporters, you'd have sworn that his team had just seen a lengthy winning streak snapped on a freak play. There was no agitation, not a hint of concern.
"Overall, I'm pleased with this game,'' said Cora after his club's fourth straight setback. "I think overall, it was a lot better. ... That was more like it. That was a better baseball game than the first two.''
Understand that Cora is not being contrarian. Nor is he refusing to acknowledge reality. Losing streaks aren't anything to celebrate.
But Cora is also keenly aware that he sets the emotional tone in his team's clubhouse. He recognizes that his players watch him and listen to him a little more intently when things aren't going well.
So Cora is not about to send the wrong message publicly. If he doubts his team, they begin to doubt themselves. If he panics, so do they.
You can call it calculating or insincere if you wish. But Cora knows what he's doing. And he's purposely choosing to accentuate the positive, even when, following a sweep with your closest rival, the positive is a little harder than to find than usual.
So, when the predictable questions were put before him, Cora was mostly bemused. He downplayed the evidence put before him, the way a good defense attorney scoffs at a prosecutor's ironclad case.
Is that all you've got?
"It will be good to have an off-day tomorrow,'' he noted, "and be ready for Tuesday.''
If you wanted Cora to rant, if you wanted him to threaten wholesale changes, then you haven't been paying attention. That's not Cora's style, and one bad week -- five losses in six tries, turning a two-game division lead into a 1.5 game deficit -- wasn't going to change that.
Presented with the math, Cora wouldn't budge.
"We lost four in a row and (the rest of the division) is playing good,'' he said. "Earlier in the season, we were playing good and they sucked. So, it's part of baseball.''
Cora cited the last time the Sox had been swept in a series: the first one of the season, when the Sox faceplanted against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway. Those three losses invited ridicule and led many to predict that the Sox were headed for a second consecutive finish in the division basement.
Of course, the Sox followed that with a nine-game winning streak and have spent the vast majority of the season either leading the East, or, at worst, a few games out.
Ebb and flow. Up and down. That's the way it goes over a long season.
He would entertain no suggestion that the Sox were at some crossroads, that their season had reached some key inflection point.
"You've got to stay the course,'' he said. "Right now, we're in second place in the division. We didn't like what happened this weekend, but it's part of it. (Tampa Bay) went on a roll for a month and a half, they won like 25 out of 28 games and we didn't play extremely well and we're still here. Obviously, we don't like losing and we want to be more consistent. But it's just part of the season.''
It's worth noting, too, that the last time the Sox were in St. Petersburg, they lost two-of-three and tumbled out of first temporarily. In the last game of that series, the Sox lost on a walk-off wild pitch, 1-0. Cora spent the post-game declaring that his team was really good and that he believed in them fully.
The Sox promptly went home and swept the Yankees three straight. Exactly a week after their loss, the Sox led the division again by 3.5 games.
"We've had to prove ourselves throughout and we're still here,'' said Cora with a touch of defiance in his voice. "It's just four games. It's just like winning nine games in a row. It's the same thing. You're going to get hot, you're going to go through stretches like this. We still have a good team.''