The Minnesota Twins traded righthanded reliever Ryan Pressly to the Houston Astros as they were playing the Red Sox on Friday night.

That worked out extremely well for the Sox. When the game went to the 10th inning, Matt Belisle was on the mound instead of Pressly and Mookie Betts launched his second pitch into the Monster seats for a 4-3 victory.

It was the end of a thoroughly entertaining game at Fenway Park. Chris Sale threw six more brilliant innings and Jackie Bradley had a redemptive go-ahead home run in the fifth inning a day after he struck out to end the game with the bases loaded.

Steve Pearce started a remarkable double play in the seventh inning that ended with him catching the return throw from Xander Bogaerts while sprawled in the dirt down the line, somehow keeping his foot on the bag.

When Craig Kimbrel blew the save in the top of the ninth, Rafael Devers tied the game with a home run to right-center that was hit so hard the ball seemed to have sparks shooting out the back. It was measured at 112 miles per hour.

Then Betts had the first walkoff homer of his major league career.

Short term, all is well. The 72-33 Red Sox now lead the Yankees by five games.

In the long term, we’ll see how the night works out. Two major league sources said the Red Sox were one of the teams bidding for Pressley but the Twins liked the two prospects the Astros gave up.

So there’s another name off the board. In the last 10 days contending teams have been snapping up relievers with the Yankees (Zach Britton), Indians (Brad Hand), Braves (Jonny Venters), Athletics (Jeurys Familia), Brewers (Joakim Soria), and Mariners (Sam Tuivailala) all adding to their bullpen depth.

The Red Sox have not joined that list, deciding first to improve their rotation by obtaining Nathan Eovaldi.

Eovaldi should help. But the Red Sox are still a reliever short and that has been the case since spring training, even if Joe Kelly covered it up by overachieving for the first two months of the season.

Now that Kelly has pitched himself out of high-leverage situations, the Sox have essentially two pitchers Alex Cora can trust in the final innings of a close game: Kimbrel and Matt Barnes.

Heath Hembree is a great choice to pick up an out or two in the sixth or seventh inning. He has stranded 20 of 23 runners inherited this season. But he’s not a direct bridge to Kimbrel. That was never the intention.

And while Ryan Brasier is a great story, having pitched so well after returning from Japan, he’s a 30-year-old with 18 career innings in the majors.

I’d personally like to see Hector Velazquez get some higher-leverage innings but the Sox like him available as a long man.

Tyler Thornburg has looked better his last few times out and threw a scoreless inning to get the victory on Friday, his first since 2016. But he’s still more potential than production at this point.

Cora has been juggling chainsaws the last few days. Brasier, pitching for a second day in a row, allowed a run in the seventh and was saved a second run by Pearce’s daring play.

Barnes was deemed available for only two batters, so Kimbrel got the final out of the eighth, then imploded in the ninth with two walks before a long, two-run double by Eddie Rosario.

“We’ve got options. It’s not like we’re panicking and have to scramble for outs,’’ Cora said. “We have capable guys. It’s just a matter of we need those guys struggling right now; we need to fix them.’’

The trade deadline hits on Monday afternoon, so Dave Dombrowski has ample time to find some help for the Red Sox and a wide selection of out-of-contention teams to call.

Dombrowski may not trust Padres general manager A.J. Preller after the Drew Pomeranz medical records controversy in 2016, but San Diego’s Kirby Yates would be a good pickup.

The St. Louis Cardinals, who are reworking their bullpen, may be willing to trade Bud Norris. Texas closer Keone Kela is another name you hear.

Dombrowski and his top scouts have been evaluating relievers for weeks now and there are unquestionably players they like who will come as a surprise if a deal is made. That was the case when the Sox obtained Brad Ziegler in 2016.

For Cora’s sake, the deal should come soon. Hembree and Barnes gave it up on Thursday night and on Friday only Betts saved Kimbrel.

The Red Sox may well have the makings of a strong postseason bullpen. It’s not hard to picture Eovaldi, Pomeranz or Eduardo Rodriguez dropping into a relief role and being very effective.

But that’s for October. For now, the Sox need help. All the good things that happened on Friday didn’t change that.

Peter Abraham can be reached at pabraham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeteAbe.