It's not exactly 1978 all over again.
For one thing, there is still a full quarter of the season still to play. For another, neither the Red Sox nor the Yankees of 2021 could hold a candle to their 1978 predecessors. These are both flawed teams, and neither is likely to catch the low-budget marvels in front of them.
But still, the numbers are sobering.
What was once a 9.5 game lead over the Yankees less than a month ago is no more. By dropping a doubleheader to the Yankees on Tuesday, the Red Sox now find themselves unofficially tied with New York for second place in the A.L. East, but officially, are percentage points behind their rivals in the standings.
Worse, the Yankees' ascension in the standings come as they have dealt with a long list of injuries, including a rash of COVID cases. At a time when the Red Sox should have built on their lead, they actually frittered it away.
From a psychological standpoint, whatever momentum the Sox seized over the weekend was wiped out in the span of about nine hours at Yankee Stadium. Having made up two full games on the Tampa Bay Rays, they promptly handed those back by dropping both ends of the doubleheader.
Nobody with any rational thought believed beating up on the dreadful Baltimore Orioles over the weekend was a signal that all was well again for the Redd Sox. The Orioles are barely a major league-caliber opponent, as the lopsided scores from the homestand revealed. Still, there was at least the thought that bludgeoning the O's would, at the very least, improve the Sox' confidence and send them to New York with some energy and momentum.
That lasted as long as it took the Boston bullpen to unravel in the fifth inning, with three straight walks and three runs allowed. Blame the opener on the bullpen.
In the second game, it was all about the offense, or lack thereof. Five hits -- all singles -- and no situational production (0-for-8 with RISP), a malady that seemed to have disappeared at home, became an issue again.
And that, in a nutshell, spells out what has become of the Red Sox: If it's not one thing, it's another. It's been a full month since the Red Sox have had their starting rotation, lineup and bullpen have all been clicking at once.
If there was anything positive to take from the sweep, it was that the rotation appears to have achieved a sort of equilibrium. Far more often than not, the Sox are getting quality starts from their starters, providing them with at least a chance of winning games. It's the same formula they used for the first three-plus months of the season, now with Chris Sale and Tanner Houck having replaced Garrett Richards and Martin Perez.
But as Tuesday also demonstrated, starting pitching alone doesn't guarantee wins over better-than-average teams. The Red Sox still have to outscore opponents, and the bullpen has to protect leads. The former didn't happen in the nightcap; the latter didn't happen in the afternoon.
"We're playing meaningful games, but we have to be better,'' said Alex Cora. "That's the bottom line. It's frustrating that we're not playing the way we're capable of.''
No longer do the Red Sox have to busy themselves with making up ground on Tampa; now the Sox have to worry about the Yankees, and Oakland and Toronto. Any notion the Sox were going to focus solely on the Rays for the top spot is not outmoded.
If there's any consolation, it's that the schedule will get considerably easier after Wednesday night. The Sox don't face a team with a winning record in any of their next three series (Texas, Minnesota and Cleveland). Of their 40 remaining games, 21 are against teams with losing records.
And there are still seven games left with the Rays -- opportunity enough to make up ground so long as the deficit doesn't get much bigger, now that it stands at five -- the biggest gap this season.
It's both a sprint and a free-for-all now to the first weekend of October. The Red Sox aren't out of the running by any stretch, but their shoddy play over the last month is not only troubling, it's made the race much more crowded than it had to be.