This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

It is hardly hyperbolic to say that the homestand the Red Sox have coming out of the All-Star break is crucial.

Why is it so important?

This is why: A 48-45 team that has battled inconsistency, sloppiness and injuries of late -- and not necessarily in that order -- needs to prove to chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom that he should buy instead of sell heading into the Aug. 2 Trade Deadline.

Over a 10-day, 10-game stretch at Fenway Park that starts on Friday -- with a three-game series against the Blue Jays, followed by four against the Guardians and three against the Brewers -- the Sox, quite simply, need to get back on track.

If they don’t, the ramifications could be seen on the transaction wire and in change-of-address forms.

Once the homestand ends, the Sox travel to Houston for a three-game series. The second game of that series vs. the Astros is played two hours after the Trade Deadline.

Standings-wise, the Sox could be in worse shape than they are (two games behind Toronto for the third American League Wild Card spot) when you consider the way the team has played of late.

In a two-week stretch in which all 14 games were against the Yankees and Rays leading into the All-Star break, Boston went 4-10.

Not only that, but the last time the Red Sox played baseball, lefty Chris Sale suffered a broken left pinkie finger in the first inning on a 107 mph laser beam off the bat of Aaron Hicks.

That day, you could feel the air come out of the Red Sox as they were pounded, 13-2, by the Yankees. The deflation was easy to understand. Sale had spent months rehabbing from a stress fracture in his right rib cage. And he was brilliant in his first start back five days earlier when he fired five shutout innings against the Rays. He was viewed as a crucial part of the team’s playoff push.

Now, there is no guarantee Sale will pitch again this season. On Monday, the lanky ace underwent surgery. The club termed it an “open reduction and internal fixation of a left fifth finger proximal phalanx fracture."

Whatever the technical terms are, it doesn’t sound good.

Does Bloom think the Sox can be a championship-caliber team with Sale contributing minimally -- if at all -- for the stretch run?

His actions will answer that question. The Red Sox will try to give Bloom something to think about.

It’s hard to believe Bloom would trade Xander Bogaerts (who has an opt-out clause he is likely to exercise following the season) or Rafael Devers (eligible for free agency after ’23) during this trade season.

These are cornerstone players. And a trade of either popular All-Star would be a big blow to the clubhouse and the fanbase. It’s more likely the club will try to negotiate with them in the offseason in an effort to keep one or both of them long-term.

But there are other important parts of the Red Sox engine Bloom could trade off in the next couple of weeks if he finds a proper match. J.D. Martinez, Boston’s third All-Star, is a free agent at the end of the season. The same goes for righty Nathan Eovaldi, who has has filled in for the oft-injured Sale as the ace for the better part of the last three seasons. Catcher Christian Vázquez, another core member of the squad, is also in a walk year.

This is why manager Alex Cora half-jokingly referred to Boston’s situation in a recent radio interview as “the last dance.”

The dance may end well before the prom if the Sox have another pileup of losses leading into the Trade Deadline.

Stay tuned. This is going to be a fascinating week and a half at Fenway.