A look around the AL East: How are the top Blue Jays competition faring as of late?

Boston Red Sox, 40-39

Barely over .500, at 40-39, the Boston Red Sox sit at the bottom of the AL East, 13 games behind the Rays. While they are last in the division, they would be in first place in the AL Central and are still close to a playoff spot, just three games back of the Blue Jays for the final Wild Card.

With a 12-12 June record, the Red Sox are 6-4 in their last 10 games but have dropped two in a row after losing their weekend series to the Chicago White Sox. They lost three of four to the Rays at the beginning of June but took five out of six against the Yankees to improve to 13-11 against AL East teams on the season.

Boston hasn't fared well outside of their games against New York. They lost series to the Cleveland Guardians and Colorado Rockies and split a four-game set with the Minnesota Twins last week.

The Red Sox offense is tough to figure out. They have the eighth-most hits (204) in the majors in June and have scored the ninth-most runs (109). However, their .320 wOBA is 15th overall, down from their impressive .334 mark through the end of May. Their .249 batting average and 98 wRC+ put them behind their division rivals, except the offensively challenged Yankees.

An area where they have improved is their pitching. After surrendering the sixth-most runs (276) and allowing the ninth-highest wOBA against (.327) in the season's first two months, they have started to steady the ship. In June, they are 16th with 97 runs allowed and have the 12th-best wOBA against (.308).

They'll try and finish the month over .500 when they welcome the surprising 45-34 Miami Marlins to Fenway for a three-game set before heading on the road where their first stop is Toronto.