By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) — The Boston Red Sox are having a pretty good year.

That much is pretty self-evident, with the Red Sox heading into the All-Star break with a 68-30 record. That’s the best record in all of Major League Baseball, and by a fairly wide margin. As far as AL competition is concerned, the Red Sox are 4.5 games up on the Yankees in the AL East, and they’re five up in the loss column over the Astros. Things are looking pretty good at the moment for the Red Sox during this four-day break.

And as you might expect with the sustained level of excellence combined with the season beginning in March and the All-Star Game being a few days later than normal, the Red Sox have set some records and achieved some accolades for their pre-All-Star break accomplishments. Such as:

–The team has the most wins (68) by any team ever before the All-Star break. (Previous record was 65, set by the 1969 Orioles.) –The team has the highest win percentage at the All-Star break by any MLB team since the 2001 Seattle Mariners. That team went on to tie an MLB record with 116 games. –The team is tied for most wins through 98 games in franchise history with the 1946 Red Sox. —J.D. Martinez has the most total bases (228) before the All-Star break in Red Sox team history. (Previously held by Jim Rice, with 218 in 1978.) –Martinez is tied for second in Red Sox history with 29 home runs before the break. David Ortiz owns the record at 31. –Martinez is also the sixth hitter to score 72 or more runs before the All-Star break, joining Ted Williams (five times), Mookie Betts (twice, including this year), Dom DiMaggio, Nomar Garciaparra, and Manny Ramirez. —Craig Kimbrel recorded 30 saves, which are the most in Red Sox history before the All-Star break. —Xander Bogaerts‘ 16 home runs are most by a Red Sox shortstop before the All-Star break since Rico Petrocelli hit 25 in 1969. –For the first time in franchise history, the team has four starters with at least 10 wins: Rick Porcello (11), Eduardo Rodriguez (11), Chris Sale (10) and David Price (10). No MLB team has done that since the 1977 Angels. –This one’s a bit random, but fun: Xander Bogaerts has hit three grand slams. The only Red Sox player in history to hit more than three grand slams in a single season was Babe Ruth in 1919. –The Red Sox employ the league leader in batting average (Mookie Betts, .359), home runs (J.D. Martinez, 29), RBIs (Martinez, 80), and OPS (Betts, 1.139). –The team has three separate streaks of eight or more wins. The Red Sox went from 2012-15 without one such winning streak. –The Red Sox are on pace to win 112 games. Since MLB went to a 162-game schedule in 1961, the highest single-season Red Sox win total has been 99 wins by the 1978 team. The 2004 Red Sox won 98 games, while the 2013 team won 97 and the 2007 team won 96. Only three teams in MLB history have ever won more than 112 games in a single season. –The current .694 winning percentage is the best in Red Sox history, edging out the 1912 team (.691) and 1946 team (.675). Both of those teams made the World Series, with the 1912 team winning a championship.

(Most of that information came courtesy of the Red Sox’ PR department.)

Obviously, none of that will mean anything if the Red Sox go on a couple of 10-game losing streaks and fall out of contention before October. There of course will be no midseason parades marching down Boylston Street this week in honor of the first-half Red Sox.

It is, however, a good look into just how good this year’s Red Sox team has been and has the potential to be. Yes, the competition around the American League, where seven teams are under .500, is not at an all-time high. That’s no doubt a contributing factor.

Nevertheless, the Red Sox have put themselves in position to just win and keep on winning. They’ve gotten contributions across the board, they’ve remained relatively healthy, they’ve gotten everything they could have wanted (and more) from their big free-agent acquisition, and they’ve taken well to the managerial change.

While many will now say that it’s time to look ahead to find out what this team can accomplish in October, the All-Star break provides the ideal opportunity to take a step back and put into perspective the team’s active historic run. Most of us have never seen anything like it.