The Boston Red Sox are above .500

BOSTON -- In a season where baby steps have been sorely needed, the Boston Red Sox have made one.

They're finally back above .500.

Thanks to a complete game shutout from Michael Wacha and an early RBI single from Christian Vazquez, the Red Sox eked out a 1-0 win on Monday night in Anaheim against a struggling Angels team. In doing so, the Red Sox won their fifth straight game to improve to 28-27 on the year.

It's the first time that they're above .500 since they were 6-5 on April 19.

They dipped as low as nine games under .500 -- both on May 8 at 10-19, then again two days later at 11-20 -- but have gone 17-7 since. Though they appeared to have been slipping backward when they lost three of five at home to the Orioles before dropping the opener of a two-game set against the Reds last week, they've responded by winning the finale of that Reds series, sweeping the A's in Oakland, and winning in impressive fashion in Anaheim to get above water.

The run has the Red Sox currently in the third and final wild card position in the American League, a game up on the Guardians. They're 4.5 games behind the Blue Jays for the top wild card spot, and 3.5 games behind the Rays for the second wild card, which serves as an indication of just how competitive the AL East is this year. (The Yankees are comfortably ahead in the division, owning a seven-game lead over the Blue Jays.) 

After Monday's win, manager Alex Cora reiterated a belief that he's expressed dating back to the earliest days of spring training, one that's lasted through all of the ups and downs of the first two months of the season.

"We know who we are," Cora said, per RedSox.com. "We have a good baseball team. We've just got to keep getting better."  

The Red Sox will hope to continue that stretch with three games remaining against the Angels, who are absolutely reeling and have lost 12 straight games -- with nine of those losses coming against AL East opponents. The Angels have fallen out of the wild-card picture in the process, and the Red Sox can add to that misery with more wins this week.

Thanks to Wacha's work on Monday, they'll be entering Tuesday with a fully rested bullpen, with Garrett Whitlock set to face Reid Detmers, who is 0-1 with a 5.14 ERA in his three starts since throwing a no-hitter on May 10.

For a team that was six outs away from taking a 3-1 series lead in the ALCS last year, the act of getting above .500 in early June may not be much of a reason to celebrate. Yet after an undeniably disappointing start, and in the middle of a hyper-competitive division, the Red Sox have done what they've needed to do in order to make this a viable baseball season before the summer months. It may not be much, but it's something. That's a lot more than what looked possible a month ago.