TORONTO — Red Sox fans, open your windows and scream at the top of your lungs.
Frustrating, isn’t it?
The Red Sox are either blowing the doors off an opponent or they’re stymied. The one-run losses are building up. You can tell John Farrell is frustrated. The players try to hide it. It seems the Sox score for Rick Porcello and David Price and recoil with everyone else.
Conscious? Of course not. Subconscious? I am not a psychologist. I have no explanation and neither do the Red Sox, who actually have a psychologist on this trip.
The simple truth is sometimes in a pennant race, when you’re playing good teams, the other guy shuts you down. J.A. Happ, now an 18-game winner, has done that a few times over the course of the 2016 season, and he did it to the Red Sox Saturday in a 3-2 win.
One stinking run, you say?
When you review the game, you see places where that extra run could have come. First and third, one out in the seventh, Jackie Bradley Jr. hits a ball that Jose Bautista leaps and catches against the right-field wall. It goes for a sacrifice fly that brings in the second run, but it could have caromed off the wall and tied the game.
Dustin Pedroia homered in the sixth to cut the Toronto lead to 3-1.
There was just no carryover to anything. When the Sox are in these types of games, they need to manufacture more runs. Mookie Betts walked in the second inning and with one out stole second base. The Sox did part of what they had to do there, but they couldn’t get Betts home from second with one out. When Chris Young was hit with a pitch, there were two on with two outs. Nothing.
In the ninth, Hanley Ramirez led off with a walk, but pinch hitter Brock Holt grounded out into a force, erasing Ramirez at second base. Should Holt have sacrificed Ramirez to second? They had scored 13 runs on Friday night, and you don’t often think about manufacturing runs with this offense, which is the most prolific in baseball.
Yet, maybe, when you’re in close-game mode, that’s the way you have to start thinking.
If they had flipped half of their one-run losses this season, the Sox would have a comfortable lead in first place. At least they are in first place. At least in those one-run losses their starters have pitched well enough to win. Those are the bright spots.
Going around the Red Sox clubhouse, the players were either in denial about the one-run losses or simply not willing to give in to the notion that they can’t win tight games.
“We lost today, so we need to come back tomorrow and get a win,’’ Bradley said. “Happ threw the ball really well. I just go out there and play and whatever happens, happens. We’ll make adjustments. It’s a cat-and-mouse game and you continue to make adjustments and have things fall where they may.’’
Does the team perform differently in these types of situations?
“I don’t think so,’’ Bradley said. “Hitting is contagious, so when we’re winning the blowout games it keeps coming, but that’s not going to happen every day. You have to find a way to win whether it’s a close game or a high-scoring game.’’
Betts didn’t think losing one-run games was frustrating.
“I mean, no. Good game on both sides. You can’t be frustrated,’’ Betts said. “Both pitchers pitched great. Both offenses were slow. That’s how the game is. You never know what’s going to happen. However, the game ends up is the way the game ends up.’’
It’s been all or nothing. In five wins on this trip, the Sox are averaging more than 10 runs per game. In three losses, it’s one run.
“Any time you don’t finish out a game there’s frustration,’’ Farrell said. “There are pitchers we’ll face who are quality starters. It’s a matter of the relentless approach that we’re capable of that we have to have more often.“
Farrell, too, didn’t detect any change of attitude in close games.
“I don’t detect that at all. Our guys did a great job of making tough pitches when they had to. I don’t detect a different feel or vibe in the dugout. We’ll keep grinding it out,’’ Farrell said.
After Eduardo Rodriguez lost a no-hit bid in his last start against Oakland in a game the Sox lost, 1-0, he suffers a 3-2 loss here. Why don’t they score for E-Rod?
Who knows the reasons for this. One thing that happened yesterday morning was the Blue Jays called a players-only meeting designed to light a fire under a team that had lost first place via a 3-6 road trip, and a 13-3 loss to the Red Sox here on Friday night.
The Jays had been struggling at the plate and on defense. While three runs probably didn’t solve all of their problems, the Jays came out with more urgency.
Did the Red Sox sense it?
“I’m too busy thinking about our team,’’ Pedroia said. “I devote all of my energy here and not what they’re doing over there.’’
There were no immediate solutions available. We’re bound to see another one-run loss a time or two. Shut the window now.
Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.