For a moment it seemed as if Rafael Devers might have things figured out. After a weekend in which he was getting blown away by every fastball thrown his way, the beleaguered Red Sox slugger turned in probably his best at bat of the season his first time up against Baltimore Orioles starter Cade Povich. Devers battled for nine pitches, fouling off four pitches in the process, to grind out a hard-earned walk. Not a hard hit liner or a home run, but at least some measure of progress, right? Not so much, it turned out. Devers struck out his next three times up as the Red Sox offense sputtered again in Monday’s 8-5 loss to the Orioles. Boston once again struggled with runners in scoring position, going 3 for 14 on the day, and the club has now lost four straight to fall to 1-4 on the season. Overall the Red Sox are now 9 for 55 (.163) with runners in scoring position on the season. “It’s challenging but we have a good team and it hasn’t happened yet,” manager Alex Cora told reporters following the game. “I continue to say as long as we don’t expand and we keep putting good swings in the strike zone we’re going to be ok.” “As long as we keep getting men in scoring position at one point we’re going to have fun and we’re going to score runs,” he added later, “and this week is going to be in the past.” Making his first start for his childhood team, Sean Newcomb’s storybook afternoon took an unfortunate turn when the Orioles ambushed him for four consecutive hits to start the bottom of the first. The former Middleborough High standout allowed RBI singles to Tyler O’Neill and Ryan Mountcastle, and later also a two-run double by Cedric Mullins that put the Red Sox in a 4-0 hole right out of the chute. “Early on they put the ball in play, a lot of pitches in the middle of the zone, if you look at the chart the first four hits were cutters in the zone,” Cora said. “They did a good job taking what we gave them.” Newcomb continued to struggle in the bottom of the second, allowing a single and a walk, but he benefitted from a pair of terrific defensive plays to keep the Orioles off the board. Catcher Connor Wong caught Jackson Holliday stealing second and Kristian Campbell and Trevor Story turned an inning-ending double play. From that point Newcomb settled down, and the Red Sox defense continued to shine. Boston turned inning-ending double plays in three consecutive innings, shutting down potential scoring opportunities in the third and fourth innings as well as the second. Newcomb ultimately finished his Red Sox debut with four runs allowed on eight hits and two walks over four innings, and the bullpen held the Orioles scoreless through the seventh inning to keep the Red Sox in the game. But offensively, it was the same old story. The Red Sox squandered a two-on, one-out opportunity in the top of the first, and while Jarren Duran capitalized on a scoring chance in the second with a two-run triple, he was stranded at third by Devers, who struck out to leave it a 4-2 Orioles lead. Boston got another run back in the third on a run-scoring groundout by Kristian Campbell, but that’s all the offense the Red Sox could muster until the game was effectively out of reach. Baltimore’s pitchers collectively retired 17 of 18 batters through the top of the eighth, with Boston’s lone baserunner during that stretch coming on a Rob Refsnyder (2 for 3) single in the top of the fifth. The Orioles finally put the game away in the bottom of the eighth, scoring four runs on five hits and a walk against Justin Slaten and Cooper Criswell. That five-run cushion proved crucial when the Red Sox showed signs of life in the top of the ninth, scoring two runs against Orioles flamethrower Felix Bautista on a Romy Gonzalez RBI double and a Duran RBI single. Devers walked again to bring up Alex Bregman with two on, two outs and a chance to tie the score, but Bregman popped out to end the game. O’Neill finished 4 for 4 with a double, two runs and an RBI against his former team, and Povich, the Orioles’ starting pitcher, struck out eight Red Sox batters over 4.1 innings. Devers finished 0 for 3 with three strikeouts and two walks, making him 0 for 19 with 15 strikeouts on the season, and Duran led the offense by going 2 for 5 with a triple and three RBI. Following the game Cora said the club will continue to play Devers and that he’s not dealing with any health issues. He added that while the results still haven’t been good, he’s seeing signs that the slugger may not be far off. “There was one swing in the last at bat that I was like ‘ok we’re getting there,’ the foul ball to left field, he was behind the ball and he actually got the barrel to it. Good at bat too so he walked,” Cora said. “The strikeouts are up there, but the one thing, and we’ll find it mechanically, the good thing is he isn’t chasing pitches, he’s swinging at pitches in the zone. Obviously the bad thing is he’s swinging and missing at those pitches, but there were some positives today and we just build from that and hopefully Wednesday is the day he gets one, hits it and he can breathe and go from there.” The Red Sox will have an off day Tuesday to regroup before playing the second game of the three-game series in Baltimore on Wednesday. Garrett Crochet is expected to get the start for Boston against Baltimore’s Zach Eflin.