The Red Sox have a winning record (67-60) because they’ve been strong on the road this season (38-27).

At home, it’s a different story. With Friday night’s 12-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Red Sox dropped to 29-33 at Fenway Park. They’ve played 65 road games and 62 home games, slashing a collective .259/.327/.430 in Boston compared to .262/.328/.449 on the road.

Fenway is doubles paradise, so their 140 two-baggers at home, compared to 116 on the road, isn’t a surprise. Clearly, however, they’re wasting many of those opportunities with a runner in scoring position; they’ve scored 50 more times on the road than at home (290).

America’s oldest and ‘Most Beloved Ballpark’ is supposed to be the ultimate home-field advantage. Players, both Red Sox and visitors alike, have said it for years: the history and electric energy of the crowd set Fenway apart. Yet in 2023, the Red Sox were exactly 39-42 (.481) at home and on the road.

So what gives? It baffles manager Alex Cora, too.

“We know what we have to do to make it (into the postseason),” he said Friday. “We just got to be consistent in a few things, especially here. We have to play better at home.”

“And it’s a good time to play good baseball at home,” the Sox skipper continued, “Because we understand that, if we get to September and there’s meaningful games in this venue, it’ll be fun. It’ll be fun, it’ll be different for other teams. Like the teams that we play in October, yeah they feel it, but we have to get there. And in September, this place is going to be legit. It’s going to be fun to be apart of it, you know, but we have to do our job. We gotta close the gap from here to September 1.”

Jarren Duran CF

Wilyer Abreu RF

Triston Casas 1B

Rafael Devers 3B

Rob Refsnyder LF

Masataka Yoshida DH

Mickey Gasper 2B

Connor Wong C

Ceddanne Rafaela SS

Kutter Crawford RHP

When: 4:10 p.m. ET

Where: Fenway Park

Broadcast info: NESN, WEEI 93.7 FM, WCCM 1490 AM (Spanish)