Last year, the Sox clinched on the third-to-last day of the regular season. This year, they are set up to do so much earlier.

Given that cushion, they occupy a happy sort of purgatory with 11 games to go. They want to win, but their season isn’t on the line every night. They possess — and have taken advantage of — the luxury of mentally and physically preparing for the playoffs without going all-out.

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“You don’t want your focus to stray too far away from what you gotta do, what we got to do between the lines at 7 o’clock tonight, which is go out and play a competitive game, try to win the game,” Tracy said. “That being said, if you have to rearrange things or rest this or rearrange that — it’s not something you just wait till the second-to-last day of the season to do. … And not everybody gets to put themselves in a position to be able to do that.”

The Rangers, for example, are in a much more stressful spot. They improved to 75-76 and are one game back of the Astros for the AL West lead.

The Red Sox nearly came back in the eighth inning, after All-Star closer Jacob Latz entered for a five-out save. With two outs and the bases loaded, Andruw Monasterio — pinch hitting for Jarren Duran — struck out swinging.

Relievers Brayan Bello, Alec Gamboa, Wyatt Olds, and Jovani Morán combined to throw 5⅓ scoreless innings to give the lineup a chance.

Lefthander Patrick Sandoval’s start was short and odd.

The Rangers came out swinging — and swinging and swinging and swinging. Leadoff hitter Justin Foscue fouled off Sandoval’s first seven pitches and struck out on the ninth.

Sandoval fanned his first four hitters overall before seemingly randomly crumbling in the bottom of the second.

Brandon Nimmo’s single lined to left provided the first base runner of the game. Wyatt Langford blasted a two-strike pitch to deep center, but Jarren Duran settled under it just in front of the wall for the second out of the inning.

But Sandoval needed 35 additional pitches to finish the frame. Ezequiel Duran singled, setting up Elias Diaz’s two-run double into the left-field corner. Sandoval walked No. 9 hitter Danny Jansen and Foscue to load the bases. Corey Seager dropped a two-run single between shortstop Trevor Story and left fielder Roman Anthony.

By the time Josh Jung struck out swinging, Sandoval had thrown 44 pitches to just eight batters in the inning.

He returned for the third and retired two batters on five pitches before interim manager Chad Tracy brought in righthander Brayan Bello.

Sandoval’s final line: 2⅔ innings, four hits, four runs, two walks, five strikeouts.

A potential benefit of Sandoval’s prolonged second inning of work: Rangers righthander Jacob deGrom did not look or pitch the same after waiting it out.

Through two innings, deGrom was perfect. Over the next three, six of 15 Red Sox batters reached base.

DeGrom grinded through five innings and managed to hold the Sox to two runs — both on Nick Sogard’s home run in the third. On a two-strike, 91-mile-per-hour slider inside and low, Sogard guessed right, golfing it into the right-field corner.

Sogard is up to five homers in his past 24 games. In his first 92 — across parts of three major league seasons — he had zero.

The Sox’ next best chance against deGrom was an almost accidental rally in the fifth. On the first pitch of the inning, Jarren Duran got hit on the foot. On the second pitch, Caleb Durbin reached via Jansen’s catcher’s interference.

Sogard gave himself up via a sacrifice bunt, and Roman Anthony struck out. Mickey Gasper drew a walk to load the bases, but Adley Rutschman grounded out to Jung, the third baseman who was positioned at basically the shortstop spot, ending the threat.

Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.