BOSTON (AP) — The AL playoff race is getting tighter for the Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox lost 5-3 to the Athletics on Thursday, dropping the three-game series to the noncontending A’s and allowing the Cleveland Guardians to crawl within 1½ games of Boston in the AL wild-card race.

The Red Sox are still in position for the third and final AL wild-card berth, but they fell 2 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the race for home-field advantage in the first round.

“We control our own destiny,” manager Alex Cora said. “We’ve got to play better baseball. That’s it. There were signs today, but we’re not there yet.”

Boston has lost five of its last seven games to turn what had been a good shot at edging the Yankees into a chance of missing out completely. Cora noted that in 2021, their last playoff appearance, the Red Sox had to rally at the end of the season.

What did he learn from that season?

“Don’t get too high. Don’t get too low,” Cora said. “It’s 162 (games) for a reason.”

The Red Sox head to Tampa Bay for three games before three more in Toronto. They finish the season with a three-game series against the Tigers at Fenway Park.

Cora insisted that there is no panic in the Boston clubhouse. On Saturday, he raised eyebrows when he responded to questions about postseason lineup construction by saying: “I think we should stop talking about October, to be honest with you.”

“There’s a lot of stuff going on and we have to play better,” he said. “I’m not saying we’re in a bad spot. But we have to wait to see if October is part of this.”

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb