Three straight losses are a reminder that Red Sox aren’t running away with AL East

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BOSTON — You didn’t really think the Boston Red Sox would run away with the American League East, did you?

Did you?

OK, so the Sons of John Farrell have looked like world-beaters over the past month. Scoring at least five runs in 20 of 24 games will have that effect. But although the Sox are likely to go as far as their power-packed offense can carry them, the Strat-O-Matic run totals — 40 in three games against the Oakland Athletics, 43 in four games against the Houston Astros, 20 in three games against the Colorado Rockies, 29 in four games this week against the Baltimore Orioles — were like a funhouse mirror, distorting reality and disguising real warts.

The Red Sox need pitching. Badly. The rotation is down to four starters — ace David Price, surprising knuckleballer Steven Wright, young lefty Eduardo Rodriguez and maddeningly inconsistent Rick Porcello — while setup men Koji Uehara and Junichi Tazawa already look overworked and won’t be getting any relief from Carson Smith, who was lost for the season last month to Tommy John elbow surgery.

Brought in to keep the Jays at bay, Koji Uehara instead gave up a two-run, eighth-inning homer to Devon Travis that put the Red Sox in a 5-1 hole. Darren McCollester/Getty Images

Insufficient pitching finally has caught up with the Sox over the past three games. They gave up 25 runs in back-to-back losses in Baltimore and dropped a 5-2 decision Friday night in the series opener against the Toronto …

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