Poll: Did playoff hopeful Sox’ bubble burst with sweep to Houston?

That was not a good weekend any way you slice it for the Boston Red Sox, getting swept off the field by the Astros, leapfrogged in the Wild Card standings by another team trying to catch the Royals, and then the black eye of Jarren Duran's homophobic hot mic incident. It was three games I'm sure the Sox wish they could forget.

But at this time of the year, every game is crucial, and Boston did themselves no favors.

At 8-13 since the break, the Sox have gone from owning a playoff spot to being at risk of sliding into an insurmountable spot in the standings. They're not there yet at still just three back. One good half-week and they're right back neck and neck with KC. But any deficit larger than what they currently face could spell trouble for a team that is allowing the most runs in baseball (7.2) over the last three weeks.

Boston appears in need of an energy shift to quote Jaylen Brown, or at the very least a kick in the you-know-what to avoid having this year finish the way of last season, when the Sox were also 61-55 through 126 games before slumping to a 17-29 mark the rest of the way.

Where is your level of optimism that one month from now, we won't be talking about a baseball team that has packed things in for 2024?