A dejected Tim Wakefield walks around the mound after loading the bases with Yankees yesterday in the sixth inning.

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The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

BOSTON — The Red Sox were on the receiving end of a whipping yesterday at Fenway Park, thanks to the New York Yankees — again.

Numerous Red Sox players admitted as much after the 10-3 spanking as the A.L. East standings have become a close-knit group of three teams vying for the top spot. This weekend, back at home after a six-game road trip through Anaheim and Seattle, it was expected that the Red Sox would take advantage of their success here.

That hasn’t been the case the last two games, including Friday’s 1-0 loss.

“We never want to lose at home,” said Mike Lowell. “We got our [butts] kicked pretty good. Hopefully we can put that behind us and play better.”

There have been a lot of distractions — mainly Manny Ramirez’s unwillingness to play because of a suspect injury. Publicly the players are saying they’re not too concerned about the pair of home losses.

“We’re not concerned,” said Lowell. “We just need to play better baseball. If we play the way we are capable of playing, we’ll be fine. … There’s two months left in the season, and we want to play better. We want to get on a good rhythm. We’ve got David [Ortiz] back now, and if everyone falls into their slot and our offense can get more consistent, we can maybe get on a roll.”

Red Sox catcher Kevin Cash stood in the dugout Friday afternoon, gazing out at the left-field scoreboard at Fenway Park. Boston’s backup receiver was studying the A.L. East standings, knowing this three-game set against the Yankees would be “interesting.”

After two games — both victories by the Yankees, including yesterday’s pounding — those standings have quickly tightened between the first-place Tampa Bay Rays, the Sox and now the Yankees.

It’s safe to say the Red Sox are surprised by how close the race has become.

“We all are,” said Cash. “Especially with how well we’ve played at home. It doesn’t matter who we are playing against; we play pretty good at home. [Yesterday] they outdid us in every category. There’s still a lot of time left, but we definitely need to get rolling here.”

The Red Sox have had trouble scoring runs of late, and Red Sox manager Terry Francona said he can’t put his finger on the reason. In the last two games, Boston has scored a total of four runs and produced only one extra-base hit, which was J.D. Drew’s monster solo home run yesterday in the sixth inning.

“When I have a better answer, you’ll see more runs,” Francona said.

Basically, there’s been no fight — literally — by the Red Sox in the last two games.

Rewind to July of 2004, when the Red Sox were in a similar situation and were looking for some kind of spark. Alex Rodriguez was drilled by then-Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo. The two had words and catcher Jason Varitek got in the face of the Yankees star before an all-out, bench-clearing brawl ensued.

That was the spark Boston needed en route to its first World Series Championship in 86 years.

Fast forward to Friday.

Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain threw a 97-mph fastball at the head of Sox’ Kevin Youkilis. It was the fourth time in less than a year the hard-throwing right-hander threw at/or behind Youkilis. There was no immediate reciprocation, partly because both teams were given warnings and the Yankees held a one-run lead.

Yesterday, with knuckleballer Tim Wakefield starting for Boston, it took until the eighth inning for Red Sox reliever Craig Hansen to drill Rodriguez on the left arm with a 98-mph fastball to send a return message. That was the only spark the Red Sox could muster yesterday.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, there were plenty of empty seats at Fenway Park, which is unheard of for a series of this magnitude. That just painted the picture of how the last couple of days have gone for the Red Sox at home.

The spark the Red Sox need could come in the form of Jon Lester (8-3, 3.20), who will take the mound today against the Yankees’ Sidney Ponson.

“He’s had a lot of consistent starts for us,” said Lowell. “He’s been able to shut down offenses, and it’ll be a great time [today] to have a great start to put us on the right track.”

jmcdonal@projo.com