Mike Celizic

At some point, the Red Sox will score another run and win another game. But right now, Boston is a team that’s been stripped of its swagger.

What remains to be seen is if it’s on its way to being stripped of the playoff slot that Red Sox Nation had begun to think of as a divine right. That all depends on how long it takes for them to remember who they used to be and what it takes to win a baseball game.

It’s been a long time since the best advice to Red Sox fans was to sit quietly in a corner and not try to draw attention to themselves. But that’s what the past six days have done. Two losses to the Rays followed by four to the hated Yankees have reduced a team that just a couple of weeks ago looked like a mortal lock to be playing October baseball to a team that doesn’t look like it could beat itself in an intrasquad game.

Forget those eight straight the Yankees lost earlier in the year to Boston. Those games were played before New York had found its stride and before Alex Rodriguez was fully back in the saddle after spring surgery on his hip.

But A-Rod is back. After winning Friday’s 15-inning classic pitcher’s duel with a two-run walk-off homer, the world’s most controversial third baseman smacked another in Sunday’s 5-2 Yankee win. The heroics may well put A-Rod in that select company of Red Sox killers, Bucky Bleeping Dent and Aaron Bleeping Boone. If you live in Boston, feel free to call him Bleep-Rod. His average isn’t much, but the man has turned into a clutch ballplayer.

And the Red Sox have turned into an outfit that played its heart out for three of the four games and had that heart ripped out and stomped flat by the Yankees.

Baseball teams are resilient. They have to be in a sport that has an interminable season full of ups and downs. And Boston is a veteran outfit that’s seen just about everything before and isn’t going to curl up in a corner just because it’s lost six straight to first the Rays and now the Pinstripes.

But the last three games had to leave a mark on the Red Sox psyche. They hold the Yankees scoreless for 14 innings on Friday and lose. They hold them scoreless for five innings on Saturday and lose 5-0. On Sunday, they hold the Yanks scoreless for 7, take a 2-1 lead in the eighth, and lose 5-2.

You can’t pitch better than the Red Sox starters did over the final three games. You also can’t hit worse. That’s what hurts. They could have won three of the four games. Instead, they crawl out of the Bronx 6 1/2 games back in the AL East and tied with Texas for the AL wild card.

As if to rub it in, the schedule sends them off to play the AL Central leading Tigers, followed by the Rangers. By the time the Yankees come to Boston for three games on Aug. 21, Boston could be in total desperation mode.

Somebody on this team has to start hitting. It’s virtually impossible in this era to go 31 innings against any team without scoring a run, but that’s what Boston did against the Yankees. It may be understandable that they had trouble against A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia, but on Sunday, they couldn’t scratch a run off Andy Pettitte.

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Pettitte’s been a very good pitcher during his long career, but he’s not what he used to be. He’s averaging six innings a start and more than four earned runs per nine innings. But against Boston he became Sandy Koufax, pitching seven scoreless innings during which he gave up just five hits.

There were big holes in this line-up to start with. Jason Varitek is a great catcher and team leader, but he’s fighting to keep his average over the Mendoza line. David Ortiz is in such an abysmal slump he was benched Sunday. Nick Green contributes little. J.D. Drew and Jason Bay have both forgotten how to hit the ball.

And nobody is hitting in the clutch. In the three losses on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Boston was 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position. In Thursday’s blowout loss, they were 3-for-21. For the four games, that’s 3-for-38, an average of .079.

It’s almost impossible to be that bad, yet Boston has pulled it off. And now the Red Sox have to figure a way out of the pit they’ve dug for themselves.

The Red Sox know how easy it is to say, “We just have to shake it off and move on.” They’ve been saying that for a week now.

It’s time to get another post-game mantra.

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