Boston Red Sox have fought their way back into playoff mix

The Boston Red Sox have strung together three consecutive series wins to put themselves back in the postseason hunt for the first time this season.

Who knew that mediocrity could feel this encouraging? A win total that matches the number in the loss column signifies a team that is merely average yet for the Boston Red Sox to climb out of their early-season hole to reach that level is a minor triumph.

The Red Sox have reached .500 for the first time since March 29 and they finally have a positive run differential (barely, at +1). That’s hardly impressive for a reigning World Series champion at this stage of the season but after dropping five of their first six games and eight of their first ten, it took quite a while to shed the losing record.

Boston has battled their way back by winning eight of their last ten, winning all three series since they were swept in a rain-shortened two-game set against the Tampa Bay Rays. Does this mean the juggernaut that steamrolled through the competition last year is back or have they simply been beating up on bad teams?

A three-game sweep of the A’s avenged a less desirable outcome in Oakland last month and gave the Red Sox a series win against a team that went to the playoffs a year ago. The 17-21 A’s are off to a slow start themselves though. Boston followed that by taking three out of four against the Chicago White Sox and two of three from the Baltimore Orioles, two teams that lost 100+ games last season.

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Whether or not the Red Sox use this momentum to vault their way to a winning record or stumble back below the .500 mark remains to be seen, perhaps as soon as this weekend when the Seattle Mariners come to town. The M’s were the ones who put Boston in this hole to open the season. They aren’t quite the powerhouse they appeared to be early on but Seattle currently sits a half-game ahead of the Red Sox in the Wild Card race.

Perhaps it’s too soon to be tracking where teams fall in pursuit of a Wild Card spot. Too many teams remain bunched close together and we still can’t rule out a fourth consecutive division title. Yet it’s worth noting that Boston enters the day only 1.5 games out of the second Wild Card. The only teams ahead of them are the Mariners and Cleveland Indians, who they will see later this month.

Boston also has six games in May against a first-place Houston Astros team that they defeated in last year’s ALCS and wrap up the month with a return to the Bronx to take on the New York Yankees.

The days of padding their record with the punching bags of the league are over, at least for the next few weeks. The competition is about to get fiercer, providing a steep challenge for a Red Sox team that desperately needs to avoid dipping back into loser territory.

Where this team stands at the end of the month after running this gauntlet of contenders will go a long way toward determining if their recent revival is real or not.