BOSTON — As they head down the final stretch of the schedule, the Red Sox have picked an exceedingly bad time to fall back into a bad habit that plagued them earlier in the season.

In their loss Wednesday against the Athletics , the Red Sox were a woeful 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position.

On Friday night, in the series opener with the New York Yankees, the Red Sox were almost as bad: 0-for-8.

Their inability to take advantage of a few opportunities almost obscured the fact that they collected just two hits in a 4-1 loss. The Sox had their chances, even if they didn’t exactly slug their way to those opportunities.

In the second, an error, a fielder’s choice and a wild pitch gave the Sox a runner in scoring position with two down. But David Hamilton popped out foul for the fin

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