Is it time to believe in the Red Sox again?

Clay Buchholz is 5-0 since the beginning of June. Getty Images

By Eric Wilbur

July 6, 2015

4 minutes to read

Slowly, perhaps less than surely, the Red Sox are starting to put themselves back together again.

No, it isn’t as if the last-place conundrum that represents the 2015 Olde Towne Team has lit the world on fire in its resurgence, but some level of competency (Friday night’s disaster against the Houston Astros aside) has filtered into manager John Farrell’s clubhouse, giving off what amounts to a warm and fuzzy feeling heading into the final week before Major League Baseball’s All-Star break.

We’re pretty sure that a 17-16 surge since John Henry rallied the troops with his vote of confidence on June 2, ultimately wasn’t the sort of response the owner was hoping for. Then again, considering the team was only 22-29 at the time when Henry whistled about the projections and his faith in the people in charge, a game over .500 pace is reason to celebrate.

Yet, here are the Red Sox, left for dead in the wake of a disastrous month of May (10-19), only to be followed up with reason to hope, if not exactly believe, with midsummer upon us.

After taking two out of three over the weekend from the Astros at home, the Sox sit six games behind the American League East-leading New York Yankees, a striking distance that would have seemed laughable weeks ago in thanks to how poorly the Red Sox were playing as a whole. In fact, on the day of Henry’s “Everything is Awesome,’’ speech, his team was only 4 1/2 games out.

But those who pointed that factor out at the time were banking on a terrible division, which it admittedly has remained. The point they were missing was that the Red Sox were the worst of what amounted to the worst division in the game.

So, how exactly did the panic die down?

This — and I hesitate to call it a “resurgence,’’ but this — sudden alertness clearly started with the pitching staff’s quick turnaround, quieting those who scoffed at the notion that deposed pitching coach Juan Nieves was the problem. There is indeed a lot to like about this staff.

Clay Buchholz is 5-0 since the beginning of June, a performance that has put the Red Sox in a real bind as they decide whether or not to deal him and his $13 million team option for 2016 by the trading deadline at the end of the month, or see if they can corral that sort of consistency (a Buchholz oxymoron) for a possible pennant race. Wade Miley posted a 3.30 ERA in 30 innings of work last month. Eduardo Rodriguez remains the season’s most promising development on this team. Joe Kelly is gone.

And yet, despite what has been a valiant turnaround, imagine the difference if only one Ricky Porcello could manage some sort of anything to simmer the calls for Henry Owens or Brian Johnson, both waiting in the wings in Pawtucket, to replace him.

Porcello, who (obligatory) signed a four-year, $82.5 million extension with Boston before even throwing a pitch in a Red Sox uniform, is officially a disaster. He’s 4-9 with a 6.08 ERA, good enough for 95th in the majors. He hasn’t won since May 16. May 16. He’s taken the “L’’ in seven of his last eight starts, including his last, a two-inning vomit job against the Toronto Blue Jays last week, allowing seven earned runs.

He has officially become the Red Sox’ Achilles’ heel.

Porcello is scheduled to start on Wednesday against the Miami Marlins, which is too bad. The Red Sox, winners of 12 of their last 20, (Porcello took the loss in three of the eight defeats over that span), seemingly have a good thing going, but it’s damned near impossible for them to rip off a seven-or-eight-game winning streak with the likes of Porcello going every fifth day. Maybe the realization will come following this weekend’s series against the Yankees, over the break, that the bullpen or a “mystery injury’’ is the only way to get around Ben Cherington’s $100 million blunder.

It’s intriguing to think how much better the Red Sox might be with Owens and Johnson in the rotation in place of Porcello and Justin Masterson, but the prognosis of having another pair of rookie starters to add to Rodriguez is also somewhat daunting.

That’s precisely why this is a week of reckoning for the team as a whole. The trading deadline is but 25 days away, and the Red Sox need to decide what they have going here within a fortnight’s time. They have pieces to sell, but for what…well, they have to wait and see. They could add. They could build. These series against the Marlins (two) and Yankees (three) could be huge in making determinations that might reverberate into September. Conceivably, the Red Sox could head into the All-Star break only one game out of first place.

They could also be 11 games out come time for the Home Run Derby.

There are spots to cement this week in Boston, the need to deliver reason why certain elements are integral to Boston’s lingering hope. That might mean goodbye to Mike Napoli and the memories, eventually, and even more positional shifting that allows Hanley Ramirez (five home runs in seven DH stints this season) a chance to take the slot occupied by David Ortiz for more than a decade, and gets the likes of Brock Holt into the lineup on a consistent basis.

These are last gasps, but this team isn’t finished, despite popular opinion. They haven’t exactly instilled confidence either, but done? Nah.

It’s a big week though. Showcase showdown.

Either show why the front office should believe in you, or why Cherington and Co. should sell. Again.

The AL East has sucked us back in, for better or worse. But this time, at least the Red Sox look like something that maybe, just maybe, we can finally get behind.