BOSTON —The Angels’ hitters have cooled off in a hurry.

The Angels lost to the Boston Red Sox, 4-0, on Tuesday, the third time in the last four games on this trip that they were shut out.

After getting blanked by the White Sox in Chicago on Monday, the Angels have been shut out in back-to-back games for only the second time since 2018.

Prior to Saturday’s loss at Chicago, the Angels had scored the most runs in the majors. They had the best OPS and the best slugging percentage in the majors, and they led the American League in batting average and on-base percentage.

“I have a ton of faith in our offense,” Manager Joe Maddon said. “So a game like that you just go in, take a shower, go home and come back the next day, because we played good baseball.”

Dylan Cease blanked them for seven innings on Monday, and on Tuesday they were on the wrong end of another strong performance from Michael Wacha.

“We’ve seen some good arms, but we’ve got to beat good arms,” Maddon said. “You only get to the last game of the year and win it by beating good arms. We have been doing a pretty good job of it. We’ll do it again. We’ve just got to keep doing what we do. We’ll get the big hit. We’ll get the big pitch at the right time. I’m not concerned. I’m really not. Cease was good yesterday. Wacha was very good today. We have to figure out a way to beat them.”

The Angels need to figure out something new to beat Wacha, because Maddon said he had changed his patterns from how he used to pitch.

Wacha had struggled for the past few years, but he came into Tuesday’s game with a 1.77 ERA in four starts, and he improved that by shutting out the Angels over 5-2/3 innings.

The Angels didn’t manage their first hit until Shohei Ohtani blooped a single into center in the fourth.

Max Stassi got one past third baseman Rafael Devers for a single in the fifth, but he was then erased on one of the three double plays the Red Sox turned.

The lackluster offensive performance wasted another strong outing from starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard, who gave up three runs in seven innings. He threw 67 strikes among his 100 pitches.

Although Syndergaard ended up with a loss, the Angels can’t complain about what he’s done. He has a 2.63 ERA through his first five starts of the season.

His fastball has averaged 94 mph – down from his high-90s days before Tommy John surgery – but he’s still working efficiently and effectively.

“I’m not quite where I want to be yet, but I think that’s just the name of the game when it comes to recovering from Tommy John surgery and not pitching for two years,” Syndergaard said. “But it’s really helping me focus on pitching instead of throwing. And once I’m able to get back to my full self, I think it’s just going to be even better than it was before, just because I’m able to focus on actual pitching.”

Syndergaard did not give up any runs until the fourth, when he threw a first-pitch fastball down the middle and Devers hit it over the center field fence. It was the first homer that Syndergaard had allowed this season.

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He then walked Xander Bogaerts, who came around to score on a single and two groundouts.

The run-scoring groundout was a slow bouncer that Anthony Rendon nicely fielded while charging toward the plate.

Second baseman David Fletcher and shortstop Andrew Velazquez turned a nice double play in the shift, with Velazquez taking the feed and then running to the bag. Velazquez made a diving stop to throw out catcher Kevin Plawecki.

Left fielder Jack Mayfield, who had never played the position in the majors, caught the only fly ball hit to him and perfectly played one ball off the Green Monster.

“I thought we played great,” Maddon said. “I thought our defense was outstanding. We pitched well. Normally you win games like that.”