If the Red Sox have any designs on winning on the road this season, maybe they should first concentrate on hitting on the road. Either way, they haven't been doing much of either of late.

Their 1-0 loss Wednesday night in Seattle left them 1-5 through the first two stops of this three-city road trip. Two of the five losses have come in shutouts. In those two games, the Sox combined for only three hits. In the six road games in the last week, the Sox are hitting a not-so-robust .169. They've scored only 14 runs in those six games for an average of 2.2 runs, less than half of their season average of 4.98 per game.

"It's a combination of things," said Dustin Pedroia when asked to explain the team's offensive dip. "The strike zone's been a little bigger and some pitchers have been throwing the ball well. I don't know - we weren't in two good hitters' parks (Oakland and Seattle). Just one of those things, I guess."

Manager Terry Francona, too, cited some of the pitchers the Sox have seen to date, including Oakland's Rich Harden and Seattle's Erik Bedard and Felix Hernandez, as one of the reasons for the team's collective cooling off at the plate.

"They've been pounding the strike zone and working ahead," he said of the opponents. "They've done a good job against us."

In the meantime, the Sox have fallen 1½ games behind the front-running Tampa Bay Rays, with four more road games awaiting, beginning tonight in Baltimore, where the Sox were 0-2 in a visit just two weeks ago.

But first, comes a day off on the schedule.

"Those are always good to have," Pedroia said. "It will be nice to step away."