Getting to be time for 2019 Red Sox to declare their intention

NEW YORK — After the champagne, the Red Sox have never been much good at curing the hangover.

That’s not exclusive to them. No Major League team has repeated as champion since the 2000 Yankees, who won their third straight and fourth in five years. The Red Sox have had three opportunities since the ghosts were exorcised in 2004 to win back-to-back titles. But the headache from the previous October’s celebration always has a tendency to linger, and no elixir so far has prevented the 2019 Red Sox from being affected either.

They entered Saturday night’s game against the first-place Yankees (37-19) with an 8½-game deficit in the American League East, the Tampa Bay Rays between them in the standings, and in danger of dipping back to .500 with a loss.

While watching them struggle to recapture their magic of a season ago, it’s illustrative to remember how their other World Series championship defenses have played out, if only to acknowledge that we should have known this would be tough.

2005: The Red Sox actually finished with 95 wins, three fewer than in 2004, while tying the Yankees atop the AL East. But New York won the division title based on a superior head-to-head record.

The Red Sox settled for the wild card, their title defense ending in a three-game wipeout at the hands of the White Sox, one of the more unheralded champions this century.

General manager Theo Epstein, believing even championship rosters require alterations to counter complacency, made notable changes after the ’04 catharsis — Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe, Orlando Cabrera and Dave Roberts were among the departures.

The additions weren’t quite as successful, unless you’re some weirdo who enjoyed Edgar Renteria complaining about the Fenway infield and Matt Clement starting Game 1 of the playoffs.

2008: Another 95-win follow-up season, and another wild card. The Sox finished two games back of the Rays in the AL East, the longtime division doormat improving by 31 wins over their ’07 last-place finish.

Terry Francona once said the ’08 team might have been the best he had during his eight years in Boston, even with the trade deadline blockbuster that sent Manny Ramirez to Hollywood and brought in Jason Bay. But those upstart Rays got ’em in the end, with rookie buzz-saw David Price finishing off the Sox in Game 7 of the ALCS.

2014: Save for ‘Caddyshack 2,’ sequels don’t get lousier than this. John Farrell’s squad followed up its unexpected and inspirational championship run in ’13 by becoming just the second champion to go from first to worst in their division, following the ’98 everything-must-go Marlins.

En route to a 71-91 finish, which left them 25 games behind the Orioles, they had a fire sale of their own, sending away Andrew Miller, John Lackey, and homegrown ace Jon Lester at the trade deadline. It was the biggest debacle of this era that didn’t involve Bobby Valentine.

So here were are with the first act of the ’19 Red Sox season complete, 57 games down and 105 to go entering Saturday. There’s still plenty of time left in the show to discover where the plot will take us. But right now, it feels quite a bit like ’05 and ’08, and perhaps just a little worse.

If the season ended Sunday, the Red Sox would have a slight edge on the Rangers and Indians for the second wild card. That’s not the worst-case scenario by any measure — if anything, it’s mildly encouraging that they’re in the playoff picture given the 11-17 start. But it’s not near where they expected to be, either, and they have regressed lately, losing 9 of their last 16.

Sure, the Red Sox had some built-in room for falloff after winning a franchise-record 108 games last season. But they haven’t slipped slightly. They’ve been surpassed by the loaded Astros and resilient Yankees, while the Twins (an AL-best 39 wins) are the story of the season. Even the wild-card leading Rays are their superior so far.

Obviously this will not be a ’14 scenario for the Red Sox, but if they continue to play with a hazy malaise the next six or seven weeks, they will have some interesting decisions to make at the July 31 trading deadline. They need to tell us once and for all who they are, and fairly soon.

Mookie Betts sounded frustrated after Friday’s 4-1 loss.

“(The) inconsistency has been tough,’’ he said. “You can’t really play this game and be good if you’re inconsistent. We’re aware of that, but we have a long way to go to fix it.’’

Chris Sale, who dropped to 1-7, offered a mix of optimism and defiance.

“We can make those [8½ games] up in a few weeks,’’ Sale said. “We can flip that coin and be right back on top.’’

Cora has kept an upbeat and even tone through the peaks and valleys. He’s still quick to smile. But he has to know that there must be indications that the coin, so to speak, will flip soon.

“Are we saving it for the right time? I don’t know,’’ Cora said after Friday’s loss. “Get rolling and win 17 of the next 19.’’

The 2018 Red Sox were masters of the extended hot streak. They began the season 17-2. They went 39-10 from June 21-Aug. 18. They were 11-3 in the playoffs, losing just a single game in each series.

They were the greatest juggernaut, beginning to end, in franchise history. A third of the way through the follow-up season, the roster looks similar, but the results do not.

They’re talented. They’re the defending champions. And they’re the picture of mediocrity.

The standings don’t lie. If the Red Sox don’t find their lost mojo the next few weeks, we’ll stop looking to last season for hope, and we might just have to start thinking about the next one.