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Monday, September 8, 2008

Red Sox gearing up for another memorable October


They forgive you for not paying attention yesterday as Tom Brady's season likely ended, but the Boston Red Sox would like to let you know that they're playing their best baseball of the season with only 20 regular season games left.

Boston beat the Rangers, 7-2, yesterday afternoon in Texas to take two out of three in the Lonestar state. The Red Sox (84-58) are just 1.5 games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and Boston leads Minnesota in the Wild Card by 6.5 games.

Alex Cora hit an RBI triple in the second and Coco Crisp (2 hits, 2 runs, RBI steal, walk) followed with a run-scoring single to give Boston the early 2-0 lead. Believe it or not, Crisp has been Boston's hottest hitter the last few weeks which is a sentence I didn't think I'd ever have to write.

David Ortiz hit a two-run bomb in the fifth, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia added RBI singles in the sixth and Jason Bay hit a solo shot in the seventh to give the Sox a 7-0 lead.

Paul Byrd (11-11) continued to impress, submitting his best game in a Sox uniform yesterday. He threw 6.2 scoreless innings, giving up three hits with three walks and four strikeouts.

The Rangers' (70-74) Taylor Teagarden hit a solo homer in the eighth and he also contributed an RBI single in the ninth.

Every series from here on out is huge for Boston's playoff chances. The Tampa Bay Rays come to Fenway tonight for (thus far) the three most important games of the season. In 12 games this year, Boston and Tampa Bay are both 6-6 with the home team winning every contest. The Rays have finally started to stumble lately so this would be the perfect time for the Red Sox to make a further move.

Jon Lester opposes Edwin Jackson tonight.

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