Red Sox pitcher Jake Bennett reacts after giving up a run during Saturday's game vs. the A's at Fenway Park. (AP photo)

BOSTON (AP) — The way the things have gone for the Boston Red Sox since early July, it wouldn’t have been surprising if they pulled off another comeback.

Instead, they loaded the bases against Athletics reliever Hogan Harris after scoring a run, but Ian White lined out solidly to center field to end their bid for a second win streak of at least 10 games in the same season for the first in team history with a 7-3 loss on Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park.

“That we might actually win the game the way it’s gone,” interim manager Chad Tracy said, when asked what he was thinking with the potential tying run at the plate.

“It was a great effort to get the tying run to plate and give ourselves a shot, which was awesome,” Tracy said of the rally that started with two outs and a runner on second.

It was just Boston’s fourth loss in its last 31 games. On Friday, the Red Sox became just the seventh team since 1920 to win 27 or more in a 30-game span, and the only team to begin their run under .500.

On June 24, the Red Sox were 14 games under .500. Now, they’re 64-52.

Just over two weeks ago, the Red Sox had a franchise record-tying 15-game win streak ended. It matched th mark set by the 1946 club that was led by future Hall of Famer Ted Williams.

The most recent streak started July 29, after a loss in West Sacramento, California, against the Athletics, sending them on a nine-game skid.

“I think that’s our identity. I think that’s who we are as a team,” Boston DH Jahmai Jones said. “We’ve seen comebacks for us, we’ve seen a lot of late inning rallies.

“Unfortunately, it was hit on the screws right at somebody,” he said of the final out.

Entering Saturday, 12 of Boston’s last 19 wins came in a comeback, including Thursday when the Red Sox became the first team in modern MLB history to score in the final five innings from the ninth inning on in the same game in a 12-11 victory over the White Sox.

“We had that hope, that big hope,” infielder Andruw Monasterio said.

Boston has won its last nine series. The Red sox won a franchise-record 11 consecutive series in 1912, the year that Fenway Park opened.

Gage Jump worked six strong innings, Tyler Soderstrom and Henry Bolte hit solo homers, and Jonah Heim and Donovan Walton added two-run doubles for the Athletics, who snapped a nine-game skid. The A’s hadn’t won since beating the Red Sox at home on July 28.

Jump (5-7) struck out a season-high 11 and allowed two runs and six hits.

Andruw Monasterio had a two-run single in the first inning for the Red Sox, whose nine-game run started the day after Jump earned a victory by pitching six scoreless innings.

Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras returned after missing two games with an illness, went 0 for 4 and was booed for jogging lightly on a ground out.

The Athletics’ bullpen, which entered with the majors’ highest ERA (5.64), allowed one run in the last three innings. Hogan Harris got the last four outs for his 10th save.

The Athletics erased a two-run deficit with a run in the fourth, two in the fifth and two in sixth.

Boston’s Jake Bennett (7-5) breezed through the first three innings, allowing only a walk. He was pulled with one out in the sixth and charged with four runs.

Brian Serven’s RBI single cut the Athletics’ deficit in half before Heim’s two-run single in the fifth put them ahead. Walton’s pinch-hit ground-rule double off reliever Justin Slaten into Boston’s bullpen added two more runs in the sixth.

Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson matched the MLB record of 110 straight games without committing an error at the position. He is tied with the Baltimore Orioles’ Mike Bordick (2002).

Up next

Athletics RHP J.T. Ginn (8-6, 3.51 ERA) will start Sunday. The Red Sox haven’t announced a starter.