The Red Sox, once obvious sellers, now look like a contender ahead of the Aug. 3 deadline


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The Boston Red Sox are scorching hot right now and are approaching franchise history. They took down the first-place Rays in Fenway Park Sunday afternoon, 6-1, behind a strong start from Sonny Gray to extend their winning streak to 13 games.

They fell behind in the top of the second inning on an inside-the-park home run, but evened things up in the bottom half, scored three in the third inning and two in the fifth on a Willson Contreras home run.

That's the 22nd home run of the season for Contreras, who's now only two short of his career high (he hit 24 with the 2019 Cubs). His career year has held up the Red Sox offense when it was, collectively, struggling badly. Those struggles are behind them now and this is among the hottest the Red Sox have ever been in franchise history.

This ballclub started up in 1901 as the Boston Americans. Here are the longest winning streaks we've seen from the franchise:

15: April 25-May 10, 1946
13: July 18-July 27, 1948
13: July 3, 2026-present

The Red Sox stay home to start next week, meaning they'll have a chance in a three-game series against the Orioles to set the new franchise record in front of the Fenway Faithful.

This streak of excellent baseball dates back to late June. After losing two of three to the Rockies, the Red Sox were one of the worst teams in baseball at 32-46 and looked like obvious sellers in front of the trade deadline. Starting pitcher Sonny Gray and closer Aroldis Chapman were among the names being bandied about in trade rumors.

The Red Sox then swept the Yankees in four games, kicking off a run that has seen them go 18-2 since. They are now two games above .500 at 50-48 and in playoff position.

This has complicated matters.

"I think it's complicated in that there's still quite a bit of uncertainty even with our own personnel, and every day that goes by, we're getting a little bit more information about not just who we are and what we're capable of, but, also what the outlook appears to be for some of the guys that are hopefully getting healthy," chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said before Sunday's game.

"I think to say that (our goals) have changed drastically implies that there was a set position 12 days ago or 14 days ago. The reason that we say we want to give ourselves as much time as possible to see who we are and to watch our identity emerge is because we believe that it can change, and it can change really quickly."

The majority of front offices in this day and age need to prepare for both selling and buying possibilities because of the extra wild cards and how quickly things can change. Look no further than these Red Sox over the course of the last 20 games and remember there are still two weeks of games before the deadline.

Should things continue on this path, the Red Sox are surefire buyers and will be looking to load up for a deep playoff run. They certainly look the part right now.

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