Fortunately for the Red Sox, their slow start isn't a death sentence. The American League is wide open this year, as only five AL teams have winning records entering play on Thursday.That goes for the AL East, too. Boston is only six games behind the New York Yankees, who are one of just two teams in the division above .500.With 138 games remaining, time is still on the Red Sox's side.

After all, they entered June four games below .500 last year and still made the playoffs.On Thursday's episode of "Foul Territory," MLB insider Ken Rosenthal explained how Boston can still reach the postseason."They can make the playoffs. The American League is not all that strong, as we've seen," Rosenthal said. "If they get their pitching together, find some offense -- and they're gonna need to add at some point, it would seem to me -- then the playoffs are not necessarily unrealistic."On the pitching side, the Red Sox need more from Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello.

Crochet was the biggest reason Boston made the postseason last year, so he needs to start pitching like an ace again if the Red Sox want to return to October.Meanwhile, the offense has been one of the worst in baseball and desperately needs help. It should improve once Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran and others start heating up, but it's already clear that Boston will likely need to add another bat or two before the trade deadline.If the Red Sox do that, there's no reason they can't go on another run like the one they went on last summer after a similarly sluggish start.More MLB: Jarren Duran Reveals Hidden Reasons For Red Sox's Brutal Slump