BALTIMORE — They’ve got to pitch better than this. There’s no other way to say it.

As good as the Red Sox offense is, the team will not be able to sustain this level of success if it doesn’t get a little help from the pitching staff.

In May, for instance, the Red Sox tied with the Cubs for the second-best record in the majors at 18-10.

The Giants had the best record, 21-8, with an ERA of 2.66. They hit 19 home runs and scored 114 runs.

The Cubs had an ERA of 2.81 and hit .259 with 30 homers and 139 runs. The Red Sox hit .305 with 46 home runs and 182 runs. But their team ERA for May was 4.11.

The Cubs hit almost 50 points less than the Red Sox, hit 16 fewer homers, and scored 43 fewer runs, but because their pitching was good, they had the same record as Boston. The Giants scored 68 fewer runs than the Red Sox.

When you hit five home runs one night and lose, and then score seven runs the next night and lose, well, it’s time to start dwelling on how to solve this problem. When you allow seven homers in one game, as the Sox did on Thursday, something’s got to change.

When you lose games 7-5, 10-9, 13-9, and 12-7 during a 3-4 road trip against Toronto and Baltimore, there’s something slanting in the wrong direction.

“We’ve got to do some things differently as far as our attack plan from the mound,’’ manager John Farrell said. “You get these types of games when you’re putting up this type of offense, we’re not going to get that all the time. And to do that on the road in opposing ballparks, that’s a compliment to our offense. We’ve got to navigate innings when we have runners on base.’’

The Red Sox can’t afford to get soft with their pitching, which is why Joe Kelly was shipped back to Pawtucket after two horrible starts. They need better performances from starters other than David Price and Steven Wright. It may be a reason they’re going with a four-man rotation (because of built-in offdays) for the next two weeks. They can’t afford starts such as Kelly’s on Wednesday (seven earned in 2? innings) or Rick Porcello’s outing Thursday, in which he allowed three homers to the Orioles and couldn’t hold a 5-4 lead after the Red Sox had bounced back from a 4-0 deficit.

Dave Dombrowski has indicated it’s too early to think about making a deal, but too early could easily lead to too late. He’s right when he says teams really don’t start paying attention to their needs until after the amateur draft, but that’s around the corner.

The Red Sox do have Clay Buchholz in the bullpen, but that doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in finding a solution to the problem.

Porcello’s outing looked like something out of his first half of 2015, when he couldn’t keep the ball in the ballpark. Mark Trumbo took him deep twice and Adam Jones got him another time. The Sox’ pitching problems Thursday weren’t limited to Porcello, either. Robbie Ross Jr., Junichi Tazawa, and Noe Ramirez were all shaky.

Pitching is not the strong suit of this team, even with Price and the out-of-nowhere story of Wright. Eduardo Rod­riguez provided an encouraging sign with his winning season debut Tuesday. Porcello now has to regroup and be the pitcher he was earlier in the season.

He started well with three scoreless innings, but in the fourth, Manny Machado singled to center and scored on Trumbo’s two-run blast. In the fifth, Ryan Flaherty singled and came around on Jones’s two-run homer. Trumbo hit another blast off Porcello in the sixth to tie the game at 5-5. Jones hit his second homer against Noe Ramirez, who was just brought up from Pawtucket.

The Red Sox don’t want the offense to feel as if it has to carry the team every night. That will only put enormous pressure on the hitters, who have been free-swinging all season. If they find they have to win games 10-9, that can wear them down.

You don’t need to be the No. 1 pitching staff with this offense. If you’re middle of the pack, you win a lot of games. The Royals had the 10th-best team ERA last season when they won the championship, but their starting rotation ranked 22d in ERA. Right now, the Red Sox are 22d in starters’ ERA (4.79) and 23d in team ERA (4.44).

There are obvious cracks. The rotation lacks depth. The Red Sox must lament not re-signing Rich Hill, who has continued to excel with Oakland and will likely be one of the top sought-after pitchers in the trade market.

At the time, the Red Sox were running nine deep in starters, and Wright was No. 6 on the depth chart. On the road trip, the Red Sox allowed 49 runs and scored 48. So they averaged almost seven runs per game. It could’ve been a 7-0 trip had the pitching staff been just average.

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.