NEW YORK -- On July 5, the Red Sox could barely see the Yankees in their rear-view mirror, leading their forever rivals by 10 1/2 games at that time.

After being swept by New York in Tuesday¡¯s day-night doubleheader -- capped by a 2-0 loss in the nightcap -- Boston (69-53) now stares up at its rivals (68-52), if only by percentage points. New York and Oakland have the same record, each in possession of an American League Wild Card spot.

It has been a near unfathomable turn of events, with the Yankees going 26-11 over the past six weeks at the same time the reeling Red Sox have played at a 15-21 clip.

The teams are not only tangling with each other after this drastic swing in momentum, but they are both also trying to catch the Rays (73-47) for first place in the AL East.

It should be a fascinating final 40 games for the Red Sox, who will try to get back to the winning brand of baseball they played for the first few months of the season.

¡°We¡¯re playing meaningful games, but we have to be better,¡± said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. ¡°That¡¯s the bottom line. It¡¯s frustrating that we are not playing the way we¡¯re capable of, and it¡¯s been going for a while in the sense that the offense is not where we want to be. But pitching-wise, we¡¯re in a great place.¡±

Making the sweep more frustrating is that the Sox have continued to waste strong efforts by the starting rotation. Starters Tanner Houck (four innings) and Nathan Eovaldi (five) each allowed two runs, and that proved to be too many in the two seven-inning games.

While the 5-3 loss in Game 1 was marked by continued struggles in the bullpen, the Sox paid for their inability to cash in at the plate in Game 2 against fireballing prospect Luis Gil and the Yankees¡¯ bullpen.

¡°Things just aren¡¯t going our way at the moment,¡± said Sox All-Star slugger Rafael Devers. ¡°We¡¯re still being aggressive out there, still doing everything we have to do to get ready for these games and try to win them, but things aren't falling our way at the moment. At the beginning of the season, at the All-Star break, things were going our way. But now we have to try to find a different way to get those wins. We¡¯ll continue to do that and try to get better.¡±

In particular, the Sox need to be better on the road. They¡¯ve lost six of their past seven series away from Fenway, including the past four in succession.

Cashing in on scoring opportunities will be the quickest fix to their recent troubles.

In the Game 2 loss, the Sox went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base.

After J.D. Martinez opened the second with a single and Kyle Schwarber walked, it was first and second with nobody out. Gil struck out the next three.

In the fifth, with runners at the corners and one out, Alex Verdugo hit a flyout to left that was too shallow for Jarren Duran to test Joey Gallo¡¯s cannon arm. Still, Xander Bogaerts walked and that loaded the bases for the ever-dangerous Devers.

Lefty Wandy Peralta came on for Gil, and Devers -- tied for the MLB lead in RBIs with 89 -- grounded out on a 2-2 pitch.

¡°I was just looking for my pitch at the moment,¡± Devers said. ¡°There was a ball [on the first pitch] that was pretty borderline, but that's just the game and how things go at times. I still go out there and try to be aggressive and try to come through. At that moment, I wasn't able to.¡±

That moment felt pivotal. And it turned out that it was.

¡°I'll take my chances with Raffy Devers with the bases loaded all the time. There's a good chance he's going to put a quality at-bat and hit the ball hard. It just happened that it didn't happen today,¡± said Cora.

There would be one more opportunity for the visitors when pinch-hitter Hunter Renfroe belted a single to left-center to put two on with two outs in the sixth. Bobby Dalbec stung a grounder that Peralta knocked down and then recovered in time to make a nice play to end the threat.

The missed opportunities in Game 2 felt even more painful when you consider that the Sox couldn¡¯t score with the bases loaded and nobody out in the seventh inning of Game 1.

All in all, it was a frustrating day for the Sox, who will try to salvage the finale of this three-game series on Wednesday night.

¡°It was a tough day overall,¡± said Cora. ¡°I mean, obviously, to come here and lose both games, yeah, we were in it, but we didn't do much offensively today. We put some good at-bats, but most of them were empty at-bats, and that's why we lost the game.¡±