The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.Baseball began its second half by pulling out all the stops. One example? The Red Sox’s (nearly historic) heater and sweep of the first-place Rays over the weekend. Plus: Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon have more on the Francisco Lindor situation in Queens. I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!Red Hot Red Sox: Boston streaks into wild-card standingWhen we talked about second-half storylines last week, I identified the Red Sox as one of the teams that needed to get off to a hot start after the All-Star break, saying Craig Breslow’s job might be in danger otherwise.Well, after carrying a nine-game winning streak into the break, Boston pulled off a four-game sweep. That makes it a 13-game winning streak, the second-longest in franchise history, and just the sort that I’ve been saying for weeks would give some AL team a playoff spot. The pitching — even before the winning streak — has been the linchpin, but the offense has gotten huge contributions from a few guys, perhaps most notably the resurgent Caleb Durbin.It’s still July, but Boston is now a game ahead of the Mariners for the third wild-card spot.With the Yankees losing two of three from the Dodgers, and the Orioles on a seven-game winning streak of their own, here’s how the AL East standings have changed over the last two weeks:Yes, there are still two distinct front-runners. But I’m officially interested to see how this unfolds.More AL East: The Blue Jays are running out of time to turn things around.Middle Relief: Could the Mets trade Lindor?Today, Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon team up to provide further context on the recent report that Francisco Lindor is not one of the Mets’ “untouchables” at this year’s trade deadline.While the possibility exists that New York ends up trading Lindor, multiple executives across the industry described the chances on Friday as unlikely.The Mets are open to listening to offers for nearly all of their players. Lindor is not among the exceptions. Any team that expresses interest in the star shortstop, however, would have to clear a high bar.