BOSTON -- The AL playoff race is getting tighter for the Boston Red Sox .

The Red Sox lost 5-3 to the Athletics on Thursday, dropping the three-game series to the noncontending A's and allowing the Cleveland Guardians to crawl within 1½ games of Boston in the AL wild-card race.

The Red Sox are still in position for the third and final AL wild-card berth, but they fell 2 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the race for home-field advantage in the first round.

"We control our own destiny," manager Alex Cora said. "We've got to play better baseball. That's it. There were signs today, but we're not there yet."

Boston has lost five of its last seven games to turn what had been a good shot at edging the Yankees into a chance of missing out completely. Cora noted that in 2021, their last

See Full Page