Red Sox Sit 3 Games Out of Playoffs as 5 AL Teams Top .500

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 9

Boston is only three games out of a playoff spot at 42-48 near the All-Star break, despite spending much of the season near the bottom of the American League.
Five of 15 AL teams are above .500 and only six have a positive run differential, creating an unusually weak race that has kept losing clubs in contention.
The Red Sox are one of those outliers at +17 run differential, while five of the six teams ahead of them in the standings are still in the negative.
That opening has followed a chaotic first half: Boston fired Alex Cora and much of its coaching staff in April, lost Roman Anthony and Garrett Crochet for long stretches, and still rallied behind its pitching staff.
With the trade deadline approaching, Boston and other sub-.500 AL teams now face the same question: buy for a playoff push or treat the race as a mirage created by a historically mediocre league.