Red Sox players, from left, Sean Casey, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew watch glumly as the Tampa Bay Rays close them out in the ninth inning of their 3-1 loss last night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.

AP / Chris O’Meara

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It wasn’t that long ago that the Red Sox could do no wrong. They were the first team to win 50 games, they had won six of their last seven series and had even seemingly figured out how to win on the road.

But in the last week, they’ve begun to spiral downward. They dropped their fourth game in a row last night, and all four have featured either a failure by the offense or the bullpen.

Last night, in a 3-1 defeat to the rampaging Tampa Bay Rays, both the hitters and the relievers could share the blame.

The lineup managed six hits, but only one came with runners in scoring position. They left eight runners on base.

As for the bullpen, the Sox were still within a run in the eighth when Craig Hansen walked two of the four hitters he faced and Manny Delcarmen followed by giving up a run-scoring single.

Tim Wakefield was stuck with the loss, but surely he deserved better. In seven innings over 115 pitches, he surrendered just five hits and one earned run. He also tossed two wild pitches and both factored in runs being scored by the Rays.

“When you’re playing a hot team,” said catcher Kevin Cash, who blamed himself on the second wild pitch, “you just can’t have those mistakes happen. They’re going to make the most of it and they did.”

“He’s good all the time,” said Tampa manager Joe Maddon of Wakefield, “and he’s really good in this building. We only had a couple of opportunities tonight to score runs and we took advantage of it.”

The win — Tampa’s fifth in five tries against the Sox at home this season — extended their lead to 2½ games over Boston in the A.L. East and sent them 19 games above .500, a franchise record.

The Sox haven’t been this far out of first place since April 9, when they were still recovering from jet lag and their trip to Japan.

Wakefield has a 1.98 ERA over his last seven starts, but has garnered just two victories in that stretch.

“Just in a bad spot, I guess,” shrugged Wakefield. “My job — and you guys have heard me say this many times — is to go out there and provide quality starts, innings, and keep us in the game as long as possible.”

The offense provided him with almost no backing last night, which is a credit to Tampa starter Matt Garza. Fresh off a one-hitter, Garza was again dominant, retiring the first nine hitters in a row.

The lone run against him came in the fourth and was unearned. Jacoby Ellsbury reached on a swinging bunt and when catcher Dioner Navarro’s throw sailed down into foul territory in the right-field corner, Ellsbury motored to third.

After a popup by Dustin Pedroia, J.D. Drew plated Ellsbury with a sacrifice fly to left.

Over the final three innings against Garza, the Sox got just one baserunner into scoring position — again Ellsbury, and again, with the help of an error on the part of the Ray — but this time the Sox came up empty-handed.

They were no more productive against the Tampa bullpen. In the eighth, yet another error allowed Ellsbury to reach and two walks filled the bases. But Grant Balfour got Mike Lowell to hit a roller to short, stranding three.

The Tampa bullpen, without closer Troy Percival, who was placed on the DL after the game, never buckled. Alex Cora hit an opposite-field double to left with two down in the ninth, but Balfour overpowered a hapless Jason Varitek for his third strikeout of the inning.

In the last three Red Sox losses, they’ve combined to score only seven runs and it could well be that after gamely overcoming the loss of DH David Ortiz for more than a month, the Sox are now acutely feeling his absence.

“I think there are times over the course of the season,” said manager Terry Francona, “where you need a three-run homer. Having David and Manny in the middle (of the lineup), we’ve probably had that more than most teams.

“Some nights, maybe you’re sluggish or you make a mistake, but someone hits a three-run homer and you win. We’ve had to play a little bit differently because we’ve had the big bat missing.

"Our objective, though, is to win regardless of who we send out there. Rather than whine about it, we just need to try to do better.

“We showed up to win and they outplayed us. That’s what matters to us.”

Next Game

Tonight

at Tampa Bay

7:10 p.m.

smcadam@projo.com