The Red Sox wrapped up their road trip in uneventful, unappealing fashion on Sunday, dropping their series finale to the Chicago White Sox 4-1.

Their travels culminated in a 3-4 record full of wasted opportunities to pad their record against two mediocre American League Central teams.

But wasting opportunities has been a theme all season, why should their sojourn in the midwest be any different?

Over their weekend in Chicago, the Red Sox were 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position, and left 20 men on base.

Adam Duvall was the only real bright spot in Sunday’s lackluster offensive showing. After going 0-for-8 over the first two games of the series, he collected back-to-back doubles and drove in his team’s only run. They were 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position, and as befit their opponents, left eight men out.

“Today, we had chances early on,” Alex Cora acknowledged to reporters. “We haven’t hit with men in scoring position.”

“We faced some good pitching, too,” he added.

Chicago had a successful bullpen game, using Tanner Banks, Jesse Scholtens, Aaron Bummer, and Keynan Middleton to hold the Red Sox to five hits, three walks, and their only run. They combined for 10 strikeouts.

It wasn’t Kutter Crawford’s best day, but other than Luis Robert Jr., who homered off him twice, the Red Sox starter was solid. Over six innings, he allowed four earned runs on five hits, issued one walk, and struck out four. He maintained consistent velocityand induced 13 Swing & Misses.

“He threw the ball well,” Alex Cora said of his starter.

Brennan Bernardino and Kaleb Ort followed with a combined two scoreless innings. Chicago only collected seven hits to Boston’s five, but two of belonged to an old friend.

Andrew Benintendi had himself quite the revenge weekend. He didn’t strike out once, and collected at least two hits in each of the three games against the team that drafted him seventh overall in 2015, promoted him to the majors barely a year later, won a ring with him in 2018, and traded him to the Kansas City Royals in February 2021. Sunday was his best game of the weekend, as he went 2-for-4 with a run and RBI.

The Red Sox are now 11-14 in series finales.

Losing to bad teams has emerged as another unfortunate motif.

The Minnesota Twins were 36-36 (and somehow in first place in the American League Central) when the Red Sox arrived on Monday. After taking the first two games, they ended up splitting the series, which Twins starter Joe Ryan capped off by throwing a complete-game shutout in the finale.

The White Sox were 32-44 and in fourth place in the AL Central when the Red Sox rolled into town on Friday.

Nearly halfway through the season, it’s becoming clear that the Red Sox struggling against so-called “bad teams,” or losing squads isn’t an aberration.

Perhaps, they simply aren’t very good, either.

Despite being above-.500 for most of the season and having a plus-21 run differential, the Red Sox haven’t managed to beat teams with significantly worse marks. Often, they defeat themselves by failing to capitalize, as was the case this weekend.

The Red Sox are 11-15 in inter-league play, including getting swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates at Fenway for the first time in franchise history, and another sweep at home by the St. Louis Cardinals, who were 13-25 when they arrived in Boston. They’re currently fourth and last in the National League Central, respectively.

Earlier this month, the Red Sox dropped two of three to the visiting Colorado Rockies who are 31-49 at the bottom of the NL West, and lost 25-1 to the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night.

What makes this season so baffling, is that the Red Sox have dispatched far better teams. They’re 28-24 against clubs that entered Sunday with a record of .500 or better. They swept the Toronto Blue Jays in a four-game set at Fenway in May, and are 5-1 against the New York Yankees this season.

Yes, this Red Sox team can score a season-high 15 runs against the Yankees, then lose 4-1 to the White Sox.

Good luck trying to make sense of that.

The Red Sox head home 40-39, clinging to a winning record once again. They have Monday off to reset before the second-place Miami Marlins and Matt Barnes pay a 3-game visit.

They’re a winning team, maybe the Red Sox can beat them.