In baseball, there's a general understanding that Memorial Day is the first benchmark of the season, a chance for teams to evaluate where they stand and what they might need to improve.
It wasn't long ago that, had the Red Sox attempted to take stock of themselves in the mirror, the mirror might have broken. The team wasn't hitting and there seemed the very real possibility that they were close to achieving the impossible -- playing themselves out of contention before the season was a third complete.
In recent weeks, of course, they've executed a nifty U-turn. Suddenly, they're more closely resembling the offensive juggernaut they were expected to be. Gone, for the most part, are games in which the Red Sox pitch well, but can't come up with enough offensive support. Following months of scoring one or two runs, night after night, they're pulverizing opposing pitching.
Sunday was a case in point. Having been stymied in Saturday's nightcap, which invited flashbacks to the first month, the Sox mashed in a big way, splaying 15 hits around (and out of) Fenway en route to an almost effortless 12-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
They hit a season-high five homers, and as if to demonstrate just how formidable the lineup is from top to bottom, the five homers came from the first, second, seventh, eighth and ninth spots in the order, Every starter in the lineup reached base safely and only one failed to come up with at least one hit.
The same team that several times went multiple games in a row without a homer in the early going, has now blasted three or more in five of their last 11 games. (By contrast, the Sox didn't have a single game in their first 37 in which they hit more than two homers).
In the last 19 games, the Sox are averaging 7.3 runs per contest In five of those 19, they've reached double digits in runs scored, including three times since last Tuesday.
Summer is here, in all its glory, and so, too, is the Red Sox offense.
"It's fun,'' summarized Bobby Dalbec of the offensive firewords. "Playing (at Fenway) is always fun, but it's even more fun when the ball is flying out like that.''
And no one is happier to witness the nightly barrage than the starting pitchers, who no longer are fearful that they have little to no margin for error.
"It looks very much like who we are and what we set out to be,'' said Nick Pivetta, who limited the Orioles to a single run in six innings and picked up his fourth straight victory. "I think the consistency is there, top to bottom and I think that's the most important thing -- everybody's putting up competitive ABs and they're doing a great job.
"They're walking and really taking it to (the other team's) starting pitching, getting guys out of the game early. That allows us to feel less pressure.''
Not long ago, the Sox were getting almost nothing from three different positions on the field -- center field, right field and first base. Now, all three spots are providing punch.
Kike Hernandez, who did little for the first five weeks, has three homers and five doubles in the last 10 games. Jackie Bradley Jr. has been having far better at-bats, and when he sat Sunday in favor of Christian Arroyo, Arroyo provided a homer.
The platoon of Dalbec and Franchy Cordero, which looked inept 10 days ago, is on a roll of late. Both players were in the starting lineup Sunday, with Cordero getting a start in left, and both players homered. Cordero has nine RBI in his last eight games while hitting .375 while Dalbec's homer was his second in the last three games.
"It feels good,'' said Dalbec of the uptick in production. "I've been working hard, so it nice to get some things going. I think my body's in the right spot -- the right spot at the right time.''
Dalbec sees the team's surge the result of "swinging at the right pitches and we're not trying to do too much with them. I think we were all kind of pressing as a team earlier and just missing balls and stuff wasn't going our way. We kind of let it wear on us. Now, we're just trying to be ourselves and compete.''
"It isn't going to be Raffy, J.D. (Martinez) and Xander (Bogaerts) all the time,'' said Alex Cora. "Everyone else has to do their part.''
Just in time to turn the season around.
Just in time for summer.