Red Sox finished shopping

WHEN THE Red Sox beat the Twins last week 13-2 — their third straight win, keeping them a half-game up in first place in the AL East — Boston president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski believed it was an ignition switch. His gut told him his team was about to take off. The Red Sox followed with losses in five of their next six games and fell to the second wild card — one game up on the Astros, 2 ¹/2 on the Tigers and four on the Yankees. “I have been a little surprised,” Dombrowski said about not taking off, especially after being the most aggressive July buyer — getting Brad Ziegler, Aaron Hill and Drew Pomeranz — to add to an offseason spree for David Price, Craig Kimbrel, Carson Smith (out for the year) and Chris Young (the outfielder).

Dombrowski said he will listen through Monday’s trade deadline, but believes his shopping is over. And he also continues to believe the team is poised to — finally — take off. The big reason he feels that way is the addition of Pomeranz and the improved performance of Eduardo Rodriguez — joining Price, Rick Porcello and Steven Wright — has “given us five starters with a chance to win and that is big.”

In addition, Dombrowski said the plan is to have Kimbrel (on the disabled list) throw a rehab inning Saturday and be activated Monday. He believes that putting Ziegler into the eighth inning with Kimbrel in the ninth will bring stability. Also, Dombrowski said: “Our offense is as good as anyone in baseball.” The Red Sox have scored 54 runs more than any team, 74 more than any other AL team.

“We are in a nice position [with the trade deadline] to just see what is out there, but now that we don’t feel like we need a starting pitcher we feel we don’t have any [big needs],” Dombrowski said.