BOSTON — For all that they’ve accomplished this season, the Tampa Bay Rays still haven’t won a game at Fenway Park. In fact, since the start of 2007, they’ve lost 13 of 15 here.

And don’t think Joe Maddon doesn’t know it.

Maddon, the Rays’ personable manager, has repeatedly said that his band of upstarts must prove to themselves that they can beat the Red Sox in their own backyard.

“We really do need to win a game or two in Boston,” said Maddon over the weekend. “I’ve said that from the very beginning. It would be nice to get a win there, possibly two, whatever — just (get rid of) the mental hurdle that you have to overcome by winning on that form of enemy territory — which is difficult for a lot of teams, not just us.”

Things didn’t turn around for the Rays last night. The team with the second-best winning percentage in baseball lost again last night, 3-0, to the Red Sox. If you’re keeping score — and we know the Rays are — that makes the Rays 0-7 at Fenway. They’ve been outscored 48-16 in those games.

Jon Lester dominated the Rays for 7 2/3 innings last night, and Jonathan Papelbon took over where Lester left off. The Rays had seven hits, six of them singles.

Maddon correctly chose to credit Lester for the outcome, rather than find fault with his own team’s performance.

“That’s how I view it,” he said. “I really do. I liked a lot of what we did tonight. We just couldn’t get a hit against this guy tonight. He was really good; it happens. But I like the energy, the enthusiasm, the quality of our play. … We’ve just run into a little bit of a snag hitting-wise.”

Indeed, they have. The Rays have been shut out in back-to-back games and over their last six losses, haven’t scored more than four runs in any one game.

Not only is their timing at the plate off, but they’ve picked a poor spot in the schedule to go into a collective slump. As recently as the final day of August, they led the Red Sox by 5 ½ games in the American League East standings. This morning, the margin is down to a mere half-game.

Being the pacesetters is uncharted territory for the Rays, and it’s starting to show. They’re 1-6 in September and are winless on this current road trip.

Still, the Rays insist that no panic has set in.

“I think everyone is frustrated about their own play,” said Cumberland’s Rocco Baldelli, “but in an overall sense? — I don’t sense that at all. We lost seven in a row right before the All-Star break and came back and played our best baseball of the year.

“No one is coming in here with a different attitude. We have a pretty carefree bunch of guys in here. There aren’t a lot of guys who worry about anything — baseball or otherwise.”

As Baldelli pointed out, the Rays aren’t the only team struggling at Fenway, where the Red Sox are a full 30 games over .500 this season.

“I don’t think there are a lot of teams out there who play well consistently here,” he added.

Then again, the Rays aren’t trying to hold off those other teams. If the Rays are going to be the first team in a decade other than the Red Sox or Yankees to win the division, it would help for them to win at least one of the next two here.

If the Rays can win either tonight or tomorrow, they’ll be assured of being in first place when they leave Boston. Moreover, they won’t have to answer the questions anymore, and should the teams meet in the ALCS, they can return to Fenway secure in the knowledge that they’ve won here.

Should the Sox run the table and overtake the Rays by tomorrow, the questions will linger and some self-doubt may start to creep in. There’s no telling what sort of effect that could have on a young team, flush with their own success from the first five months.

“You have to think, for our psyche, we need to win a game (at Fenway) and feel good about ourselves and send them a message that we can play there,” veteran Cliff Floyd said before the series began.

Time is running out for the Rays. The Red Sox are still waiting for the message to be delivered.

smcadam@projo.com