After sweep of Chicago, Red Sox welcome looming road challenge

Six straight wins. The first four-game sweep of the season. Plenty of production on offense. And more than enough good pitching to go around, particularly when it comes to the bullpen. It has all provided plenty of positive mojo for the Red Sox over the last week.

Now, Boston will be looking to keep that good feeling alive, as it heads out on the road for what should be a stern divisional test: a two-game set against the Rays in Tampa that starts Tuesday and a three-game series in the Bronx with the Yankees next weekend. For a team that’s now tied it’s longest winning streak of the season and improved to a season-high 14 games over .500 Sunday afternoon, the looming road slate will be an excellent test to see if they can keep that momentum rolling, especially against a pair of American League East foes.

“We’re in the division, so they are always going to be tough games,” said John Farrell of the looming challenge. “Regardless [of] the recent streaks either team has been on, we know we’re going to go up against a team in Tampa that is very different, in terms of the way they have driven the baseball — the number of home runs they’ve hit. We’ve got to be spot on with our ability to execute pitches from the sound. So this will be five highly competitive games when we get out of here and get back on the road.”

The second-place Yankees, who picked up an 8-1 win over the Indians on Sunday, are three games off the pace, and would welcome the chance to make up some ground on the Red Sox. Meanwhile, the pesky Rays, who are 5 1/2 games behind Boston, have always been a thorn in the Sox’ side, especially when they’ve met away from Fenway. But regardless of the opponent, the recent run has Boston optimistic for these five important games for several reasons, including the potential return of Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramirez.

“I think the optimism [stems from] guys really coming into themselves and really starting to figure out their swings and figure out the defense,” said Doug Fister, who went 6 1/3 innings in Sunday’s 6-3 win over Chicago win. “As a pitcher, just figuring out what seems to work for us. August can sometimes be the dog days of summer, but our boys are going out there and fighting every day and putting up quality at bats and really selling out on defense.”

“We’ve been playing good baseball,” acknowledged Chris Young, who had his second two-homer game of the season Sunday against the White Sox. “Pitchers have been doing what they’ve been doing all year. The offense, we’ve been able to manufacture some runs. We’ve played good defense. When you do that, we’re all right.”

He added: “That’s what it’s all about, and this is the situation that you want to be in at this time of the year. You want baseball to be fun. You want to play games that matter. We’ve put ourselves in a good spot. Now, it makes every game bigger, and I love that part of it. So it’ll be fun.”