Are the Red Sox ready to finally solve their August issues?

It was a good springboard. And, judging by the past few Augusts, the Red Sox can use all the spring they can get.

The final day of July offered hope leading into August for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, the Red Sox won, claiming a 3-2, 10-inning win over the Mariners in what seemed like a fairly pivotal showdown considering what was at stake: Positioning in the Wild Card race and the all-important season series between the teams. (For a complete recap of the win, click here.)

The Sox sit two games behind Kansas City and Minnesota for the final Wild Card spot, pushing their lead over Seattle and Astros to 1 1/2 games.

And within the win were the kind of encouraging elements Alex Cora and Co. will be hanging their hats on. They desperately need this version of starter Brayan Bello, who allowed two runs over 6 1/3 innings. Rafael Devers did things stars do, including punctuating the victory with a wall-ball, walk-off double in the 10th.

And then there were the newcomers, Danny Jansen and Lucas Sims. Jansen now has four hits in seven at-bats with a walk since joining the Red Sox, tying the game in the sixth with a clutch one-out single. And Sims stepped in to offer the kind of high-leverage relief pitching the Sox prioritized at the deadline, coming in to get out of a first-and-third, one-out jam in the seventh and the game tied.

"I live for moments like that," Sims told reporters.

Now, we find out if the momentum means anything.

The Red Sox finished July with a 13-11 mark, although their mark after the All-Star break has been just 4-8. They have landed on Aug. 1 with a 37.1 percent chance to make the postseason according to postseason, that is compared to their 30 percent mark on the first day of August a year ago. The year before that the Sox' Aug. 1 postseason odds were 28.8 percent.

But, unlike 365 days ago when then chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom was just hours a way from proclaiming the Red Sox as "underdogs", this is a club that feels firmly that they have a very real chance.

While there might be some who didn't think the Red Sox' trade deadline was shock-and-awe enough, it undoubtedly left the clubhouse with a different mindset than the last two years heading into the second-to-last month of the regular season.

The Sox haven't had a winning record in August since 2019, having gone 12-16 in both 2021 and '22, before finishing last year at 13-15. And it's not just how they finished up the month, its also the tone set in the first few days of August that has meant bunches.

Last season, the Red Sox buried themselves by losing five of their first seven in August (including a three-game sweep at the hands of the team directly in front of them in the standings, Toronto). In 2022, they went 3-6 in the first nine games of the month, and a Kyle Schwarber-less club in '21 started August going 3-8.

Now, the Red Sox are banking on improved vibes - and pitching - to craft a different story.

It starts with series against one team desperately trying to hold on to postseason viability, the Rangers, who sit 4 1/2 games out of first-place in the West. And then comes what should be shaping up as a difference-making series in Kansas City, which is coming off a sweep of the White Sox and is 8-4 since the All-Star break.

Making the urgency for wins this weekend even greater is the fact that one of the teams the Sox are chasing, the Twins, have the luxury of playing the lowly White Sox for the next three days, while the Royals take on the less-than-spectacular Tigers for four.

As has been the case for the past few first weeks of Augusts, it's rubber-meets-the-road time for the Red Sox. Friday we start getting to see if this last win offered the zero-to-60 momentum this team desperately will need.

“We’ll know Friday, right?” Cora said. “Today was a grinder for all of us, for them, too. To end up winning, it was great. Some guys had to do a little bit more.”