Sweep or not, Red Sox have already proved they belong in muddled postseason conversation

Red Sox boss Craig Breslow needs to be decisive at the trade deadline with him team very much in contention.

About a month ago, Craig Breslow declared to The Athletic that “every time we set foot on the field, we’ll learn something new.” It is far from the most insightful quote in the history of the republic, but there’s something in the simplicity for me.

Simplicity with depth, as becomes clear when trying to answer the question of just what was learned about the Red Sox during the weekend at Dodger Stadium. As with most things, so much of a person’s answer reflects what they thought going in.

In the modern baseball world, where everyone can convince themselves a contender, that’s never been more true.

Boston hung with baseball’s nine-headed monster for the better part of three days, an idea that would have seemed unlikely back in the winter, when we were twisted in knots because they’d not signed Jordan Montgomery. (He wintered here! Remember?)

Heck, it would have seemed unlikely in the days before Breslow’s above words, his team stapled to .500 for three weeks until it shone on that homestand with the Phillies and Yankees. We are still in that afterglow at this address, the message the Red Sox did nothing to invalidate their place in the mix against Los Angeles.

Ahead in the eighth inning Friday, ahead in the ninth (with their closer on the mound!) and 10th inning Saturday, and going from blown out to the tying run at the plate on Sunday. That none of those became victories is very much out of character; they’d not been swept in a three-game set since early April.

“I feel like we played tough every single game. A ball falls here, a ball falls there. It’s just baseball. Things just happened to fall their way,” Jarren Duran told reporters after another electric weekend — 6 for 12, 3 doubles, 2 homers, 2 walks, and 5 runs scored. “We battled all three games, even today. We were down and put up some runs late. It’s just a testament to our team and how we always like to fight.”

Alas, there is no ‘vibes’ column in the standings (yet), so the reasons those games didn’t become wins must be addressed. Bullpen worries were certainly validated, after Nick Pivetta threw six shutout innings Friday and Brayan Bello had a quality start Saturday on just 82 pitches — six innings, three runs. Neither won, because the bullpen cracked in both, both in its top end — Kenley Jansen, who gave up three more runs for good measure Sunday — and in its other half, which is getting further leaned on without Chris Martin and Justin Slaten.

Kutter Crawford’s five home runs allowed Sunday came exactly a month after he gave up three in Cincinnati. He’d been electric since that day, with 10 hits and one run allowed in 20 innings, but this remains an untested group that at its best is a starter short.

Less in your face? The offense again looked bad against lefthanders; 11 for 56, noted the Globe’s Alex Speier, with the Sox strikeout rate against lefties an MLB-worst 30 percent.

It was all the deadline hits in one, and we now sit eight days away, desperately reminding ourselves that every day until July 30 need not be a referendum on what to do.

Listen to none less than Breslow, who has said plenty since, but conveyed the important message in that same June interview.

“I think we can all see the reasons for optimism. Exactly how that materializes over the next five weeks or so, six weeks, remains to be seen. But I think, irrespective of that, it’s an exciting time to be in this organization. I think it’s an exciting time to be a fan of the organization,” he said.

“We’re going to learn more and be realistic and also be decisive.”

Decisiveness is action. The only people who would view what happened in Los Angeles as reason to get off the wagon were ones never on it to begin with.

Montgomery? The guy who didn’t want to play in Boston because he “wanted to win“? He went this winter to Arizona, who lost 9 of 11 at the end of July last summer and still made four deadline moves, with Tommy Pham and Paul Sewald becoming part of their World Series run. (History will determine the severity of the cost.)

Strange as it may seem, eight days means the market is still very much coalescing. (Last year’s vast majority of moves came in the final 72 hours.) Monday morning, 22 of the 30 teams were within 4.5 games of a playoff spot, including all but two in the National League.

Suffice to say, it’ll be another seller’s market, lousy with buyers of sound and silly reasoning. Decisiveness is the watchword.

The Red Sox long had it. No need to pine for the days of old for the millionth time, but we are well past the point where smart baseball people need convincing that these Red Sox have a window into late-season baseball.

The biggest reason for getting rid of Craig Breslow’s predecessor was a lack of decisiveness. A wishy-washy stance whose rare moments of decisiveness — Christian Vázquez for Wilyer Abreu and Enmanuel Valdez, anyone? — delivered. (Yes, we’re excusing the Mookie Betts trade because I don’t think he was driving the boat.)

Breslow knows that. He, as the smart ones do, knows more than he’s letting on. And in a week’s time, it’ll be time to see what that knowledge delivers.