Tuesday night was painful for the Boston Red Sox in several ways.
The Red Sox had just earned an exciting walk-off win on a Pablo Reyes grand slam Monday night, so they went into Tuesday's matchup against the Kansas City Royals with plenty of momentum. It didn't last, though, as the Royals quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead and ended up winning 9-3. The Royals are in last place in the American League Central at 37-78, including a putrid 16-42 road record.
These are the games the Red Sox absolutely have to win.
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And not only did the Red Sox lose, many of the teams they are competing against in the American League wild card chase won their game. The New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros and Tampa Bay Rays all emerged victorious.
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All of these outcomes resulted in the Red Sox' chances of securing a postseason berth going down a bit. Boston has just a 9.5 chance of reaching the playoffs, per FanGraph's model.
A less than 10 percent chance isn't very encouraging for the Red Sox, to say the least.
Making matters worse for the Red Sox is the fact that their schedule is about to get much more challenging. They still have seven games left against the Yankees, seven against the Orioles, seven against the Astros, five against the Rays, three against the Rangers and three against the Dodgers.
The chances of the Red Sox finishing last in the AL East for the third time in the last four years look pretty strong right now. The real question is whether that kind of lackluster ending to the season would prompt ownership to make drastic changes to the front office and/or roster during the winter.