Sox deliver closing statement, implore Bloom to keep club together

Jul. 31—If Sunday was their final game at Fenway Park in a Red Sox uniform, J.D. Martinez and Christian Vazquez made sure their last impression would be a good one.

The two veterans, both rumored to be possible trade candidates ahead of this Tuesday's trade deadline, powered the Red Sox to a 7-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday. The pair led a five-run fifth-inning rally that featured four consecutive RBI doubles, and in doing so helped the club avoid a sweep and finish what has been a brutal July on a high note.

In the process they hoped to deliver a statement to the front office, and if that didn't come through clearly enough on the field they made sure the point got across in the clubhouse afterwards.

The message? Keep this team together.

"We're here fighting together like a family and we're going to continue to do that," Vazquez said. "We'll see what happens the next couple of days, but we're still here with this uniform and I hope we can stay."

As the trade deadline looms, the Red Sox may be on the cusp of wholesale change. The club played poorly throughout the month of July and now faces an uphill climb to get back into the playoffs.

With so many pending free agents the Red Sox could decide to pull the plug on this season and look ahead to the future, but Martinez said that as long as he's still here he wants to do whatever it takes to keep that from happening.

"I want to make it as hard on Chaim as I can," Martinez said, referring to Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. "And if we keep winning I think we can do that."

Martinez made a compelling case on Sunday. Coming into the day mired in an 0 for 24 slump, the veteran slugger went 2 for 4 with a pair of doubles and drove in the go-ahead run after Xander Bogaerts tied the game with a two-run double of his own. Vazquez (1 for 4) followed suit with another RBI double and the Red Sox kept tacking runs on from there, finally busting offensively out after seemingly failing to capitalize on their opportunities for the entire 10-game homestand.

Martinez acknowledged afterwards that it had occurred to him this might be his last home game at Fenway, but he said he's been through a similar situation before and he's not letting it affect his play.

"I'm not blind, I know what's going on," Martinez said. "It's out there, but I think I'm able to put it off to the side and focus on what I've got to do."

What comes next is anyone's guess, but the one thing the Red Sox players believe is if given a chance they have enough to compete. Rafael Devers is expected to return from the injured list this week, Michael Wacha and Matt Barnes may not be far behind, and Trevor Story should be back from his broken hand within the next few weeks as well.

Will that be enough, and does Bloom believe in this club?

"I don't know," Vazquez said. "But I know of this club, in these walls, we believe in each other and we can do this together. We did it before and we need to be together."

Email: mcerullo@northofboston.com. Twitter: @MacCerullo.