With the Yanks and Baltimore both winnng, we are now 10.5 games back from the division lead, and 6.5 games back from the wildcard.
Only Detroit has a worse record than we do. Although, to be fair, we're clustered with 2 or 3 games of 5 AL teams. Given the two games against the Braves, a sweep would be fantastic (and not impossible.)
After @ATL (2), we face:
@ TEX (3)
HOU (3)
SEA (4)
@ CWS (3)
BAL (5)
CIN (2)
All of these are sub .500 teams, except HOU. 22 games total.
So if you were going to design a schedule for a struggling team to get back on track with, before facing more AL East opponents, this would be it. The Sox are currently 10-19. To get to .500 (ish), they'd need to go 15-6. But if they blow the ATL series, they'd have to go 17-4 the rest of the way.
If they bumble to a .500 (ish) record agains these teams, and we hit the game 50 (ish) zone with a record of 22-30. . .I think they're likely done, regardless of the quality of play and individual player-performance renaissances we may see.
Of those potential renaissances, the hitting would have to get unstuck somhow, and there's a bit of fungibility there. Hernandez/whomever and Story/whomever need to provide a strong 1-5 at minimum. As far as pitching, we'd have to assume Sale and/or Paxton would be available and competent in a summer-run. But to get there, we really need the good Pivetta going forward. Barnes coming around would be nice but not necessary. . .with the cavet that like JBJ, Franchy, Dalbec, etc. the team can only carry X number of "high upside reclaimation projects" at any given time. And right now, they're carryng too many.