BOSTON -- Agonizing. Crushing. Deflating.

Those are all ways the Red Sox might have been tempted to feel after they were swept by the Yankees at home in a pivotal rivalry weekend.

However, given where they are in the season, the Red Sox know they have zero room to wallow -- even after this gut punch of a 6-3 defeat on Sunday Night Baseball put them into the second Wild Card spot, one game behind their rivals with six games left in their season.

¡°We got swept by the Yankees and we¡¯re in the second Wild Card,¡± said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. ¡°We played some competitive games, but we didn¡¯t get the job done, so it¡¯s very simple. It¡¯s not what we wanted coming into this series, we wanted to win the series and keep that first Wild Card, but it didn't happen. But we¡¯re still in a position to make the playoffs. So that¡¯s not the worst-case scenario.¡±

And clearly, the standings will keep the Red Sox on their toes. Not only are they one game behind the Yankees, but they are a mere one game ahead of the Blue Jays and two in front of the Mariners, setting up a wild final week of the season.

The Red Sox will try to take advantage of a favorable schedule. After a day off on Monday, they play three games in Baltimore against the 50-106 Orioles. Meanwhile, the Yankees and Blue Jays face off in Toronto those same three days, giving the Red Sox a chance to gain on someone three straight days.

Boston finishes the season in Washington against the 64-92 Nats. The Yankees will host the AL East-champion Rays in their final three games.

¡°For how big this weekend was, I think Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, they're probably bigger, because we know that somebody is going to lose in the next three games and you can gain ground,¡± said Cora. ¡°So you've just got to make sure you're locked in Tuesday and start playing good baseball. It's not that we played bad baseball over the weekend. We just got beat.¡±

There¡¯s no question Boston got beat in painful fashion.

On Saturday, the Sox had a lead with four outs to go and lost, giving up a game-breaking grand slam by Giancarlo Stanton that might not have landed yet.

On Sunday night, Boston seemed poised to bounce back, holding the lead with five outs to go after a two-run rally in the bottom of the seventh.

But then came a series of unfortunate events in the top of the eighth, when the Red Sox got a case of the sloppies at the worst possible time.

With a runner on first, and Adam Ottavino on the mound, Aaron Judge nearly made the second out of the inning twice. First, Judge hit a routine popup in foul territory that first baseman Bobby Dalbec alligator-armed and couldn't make a play on.

¡°I haven¡¯t talked to him,¡± Cora said of Dalbec. ¡°From my angle, I was in the corner, I saw the ball getting closer to the railing and that¡¯s all I saw. I heard the reaction of everybody but I¡¯ll check with him. Where I was, I wasn¡¯t able to see it.¡±

Give credit to Ottavino for this: He hung tough against Judge after the missed pop and appeared to strike out the star slugger on a 1-2 pitch. However, Judge foul tipped it and the ball squirted out of Christian V¨¢zquez¡¯s mitt.

V¨¢zquez thought it was a strikeout. Home-plate umpire Joe West thought otherwise.

¡°I dropped it on the transfer,¡± said V¨¢zquez. ¡°That¡¯s the first time that happened to me. I didn¡¯t know how to react. It was in the top of the glove and I was looking at the ball in the middle of the glove so I dropped it finding the ball.¡±

Unfortunately for the Red Sox, that play was not reviewable.

¡°In the moment I thought it was a strikeout, but then I saw the ball come out, so I just thought, ¡®OK, we didn¡¯t hang onto it, so it must be a foul ball.¡¯ ... So in the moment I was like, alright it¡¯s a foul ball, I have to make another pitch. That¡¯s it,¡± said Ottavino.

Judge wasn¡¯t going to let a third opportunity go by, as he mashed a go-ahead, two-run double to center.

Stanton, who tormented the Red Sox all weekend, did some more tormenting with an insurance, two-run rocket that soared over the Monster, sending groans throughout the Red Sox crowd at Fenway.

¡°Ultimately, even though it was a disappointing weekend for us, we still have it in our hands moving forward,¡± said Ottavino. ¡°If the season ended today, we¡¯d be in. So all we have to do is take care of our job against Baltimore and Washington and see where that leaves us. Can¡¯t get too discouraged off it, in the big picture, as much as it hurt tonight. Just try to move forward.¡±