On upward trajectory, Red Sox have eyes for October

We know where the Red Sox were at the end of June 30, just under a month ago. They were a game under .500, four games behind the Blue Jays -- the team directly ahead of them in the American League East and the team that beat the Red Sox 16 out of the 19 times when the two clubs played a year ago. And the Sox -- a big, fat 15 games behind the Rays at that point -- were on their way to Toronto for a three-game series that was supposed to bury them even deeper into last place in the East.

But then a funny thing happened to the ’23 Sox: A baseball season broke out for them. They went to Toronto and swept the Jays and then took two of three from the Rangers before a three-game sweep of the A’s.

So that’s where they were heading into the All-Star break. Now here they are, about to play a two-game series against the Braves -- the best team in baseball -- starting Tuesday night at Fenway Park. The Red Sox are still technically a last-place team, tied with the Yankees at 53-47. They sure aren’t playing that way for Alex Cora, who is good a manager as there is even as he continues to operate down three starting pitchers: Chris Sale, Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck.

In these last few days before the Trade Deadline, the Sox get this chance to measure themselves against the Braves, who are running away with things in the NL East. Not just a chance to see where they are, but where they might be going the rest of the way.

It is clear, however, after the first 100 games of the season, where the manager of the Red Sox thinks his team of capable of going, and that is all the way to October.

Here is something Cora said recently to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com:

“We’re in a good place. But at the end of the day, the place that we like is to play in October. It’s not about how many prospects you have or where your farm system is. It might be No. 1 or 30th or whatever. The one that really counts is how many games you win in October. That’s what we’re shooting for. ... For all the ups and downs, we’re right there. It’s not how you get into the dance. It’s what you do there.”

This isn’t about where people thought Cora’s team was when the season started, or when they were still a game under .500 at the end of June. This is about where they are and how they are playing, now coming off a series when they took two out of three against the Mets and hit five home runs on Saturday night (four off Max Scherzer) and then got 15 hits in winning, 6-1, on Sunday Night Baseball on a night when these seven pitchers limited the Mets to six hits in a run in an opener game for Cora:

Brennan Bernardino, Chris Murphy, Josh Winckowski, Joely Rodríguez, Joe Jacques, Chris Martin, Brandon Walker.

The Red Sox could have lost their season heading into July. They found it instead. The only team in front of them on which they haven’t gained ground since June 30 is the Orioles, who have taken first place from the Rays. The Sox were 8 1/2 behind the Orioles then. They are 8 1/2 behind them now, which is the same amount of ground they’ve picked up on the Rays over the last month.

The Sox were five games behind the Yankees before they swept that series in Toronto. Now the two teams are tied. Boston is two games out of the third Wild Card (currently held by the Jays) in the American League. Sale, whose latest injury issue was with his pitching shoulder, has been throwing bullpen sessions and is reportedly moving up on a rehab assignment. There is still no timetable for Whitlock (elbow) or Houck, who suffered a facial fracture after being hit by a line drive five weeks ago. But could both of them be back by September? It’s certainly the way the Sox, and their fans, are rooting.

“We mixed and matched,” Cora said after the Sox beat the Mets on Sunday night, addressing how his pitching staff made it through a long weekend at Fenway after Friday night’s game was suspended because of rain.

It is the Red Sox who seem to keep mixing and matching in their meat grinder of a division. Their batting order, organized around Rafael Devers (24 homers, 74 RBIs) is deep and versatile and talented. Jarren Duran, the leadoff guy, is at .317. Masataka Yoshida, even coming off an 0-for-5 night against the Mets, is at .315. Triston Casas, the big kid at first, is up to .247 with 14 homers. Justin Turner has 16 homers and 64 RBIs and is batting .286. A lineup like this doesn’t need to mix and match. It just mashes these days, and Trevor Story is on his way back soon from his own rehab assignment to play shortstop.

The Red Sox are fun to watch again. Now they get the Braves at Fenway. Maybe they can’t make it all the way to October. Don’t tell the manager that.