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DAN SHAUGHNESSY

Red Sox spring to life, and we’re talkin’ baseball again

The first month of the season was one big high-five for the Red Sox. Barry Chin/globe staff

Remember all that talk about urgency and the need for the 2016 Red Sox to get off to a good start?

Turns out it was all true. And the Red Sox thus far have done what they set out to do.

Our local spring sports calendar is suddenly darker, and we are going to need baseball to fill the days and nights and blogs and endless hours of sports talk. The Bruins didn’t make the playoffs, the Celtics checked out early, and the Patriots felt the full wrath of Deflategate punishments in a week in which they were denied a seat in the first round of the draft and learned they’d be playing without Tom Brady in September.

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Into the breach stepped the Olde Towne Team, the Local Nine, the Sons of Sam Horn and Nomar Garciaparra. Boston baseball’s April ended on an upswing, and the last-place Red Sox became the first-place Red Sox on May Day.

They are five games over .500 for the first time since the inadvertent championship season of 2013, and we have reason to believe they will once again be playing meaningful games in July, August, September, and (maybe) October. Dozens of questions linger about this team, but at least the Sox are worthy of discussion again. A daring dance with irrelevancy has been averted.

There is always the possibility that we are banking on fool’s gold with these guys. Beating up on the Atlanta Braves seems almost unfair. The Braves are a Triple A team and may pose a threat to the 1962 Mets, who finished 40-120. But we cannot punish the Sox for beating teams they are supposed to beat.

And while it’s handy to say the Bostons just routed three last-place teams (Houston, Atlanta, and the reeling Yankees), two of those teams were in the playoffs just seven months ago.

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While you’re at it, take a good look around the American League and tell me where the good teams reside. The entire league is a collection of average teams waiting to be beaten.

Which brings us back to these Red Sox, who should be turning the clock back to a theme of 2004, when one of the mantras was “Why Not Us?’’

Why not, indeed? Is there any reason to think a team with a $200 million payroll, a potent lineup (40-year old David Ortiz is truly unbelievable), two starters with an aggregate 9-0 record, and a 100-mile-per-hour closer can’t win the pennant? Who are you afraid of? The Rangers? The White Sox? Really?

I hate to shock you with this wave of positivity, but Sunday night’s joust with the Yankees was wildly entertaining. It was obviously tough on those who sat in the cold and rain — and 3:30 is way too long — but the game had everything.

We saw the hated A-Rod hit a homer, drive in four runs, and still make the most crucial out of the night. We saw a Pesky Pole homer from Travis Shaw and a game-winning Lansdowne Street blast from Christian Vazquez. We saw David Price get cuffed around by the struggling Yanks and surrender yet another lead at Fenway. We saw Craig Kimbrel submit a 10-pitch, 1-2-3, two-strikeout ninth.

ESPN must have been happy. It was almost like the old days when Sox-Yankees was must-see TV.

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This being Boston, we have to complain about the Sox, and the No. 1 grumble on Monday was Price’s poor performances at the start of this season.

It’s somewhat shocking. Though he is 4-0, Price has not been good. He blew a 3-0 lead against the Orioles in the home opener. He blew a 5-1 lead against the Rays, the worst-hitting team in baseball. He gave up eight hits and six earned runs to the popgun Yanks. His ERA is 6.14. This is not what folks are expecting from the highest-paid pitcher ($217 million) in baseball history.

Being the glass-half-full guy that I am, look at it this way: Price has an ERA of 6.14 and has coughed up three leads in three Fenway starts, and yet the Red Sox are in first place. Price is only going to get better. And the American League may only get worse.

Clay (0-3, 6.51) Buchholz? That’s another story. But it was good to hear John Farrell call out Buchholz (“We’ve got to get Clay going”) Sunday.

The Sox thus far have been more about accountability than baloney. They benched Pablo Sandoval and Rusney Castillo, willfully sending more than $150 million to the shelf. They gave up on box-handed catcher Blake Swihart after six games behind the plate and are turning him into an outfielder. And now Farrell is finally pushing Buchholz.

Boston is talking baseball again — a fine pastime while we wait for the next moves from Tom Brady and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Dan_Shaughnessy.