an underwhelming homestand

The 11 game homestand to start the second half was the Red Sox longest stretch of home games in the season. To make it even more favorable, the Sox faced three very beatable teams (four against Toronto, three against the Royals and four against the White Sox). Thus far, through nine games the Red Sox have gone 4-5. Their lead in the A.L. East which reached a highwater mark of 14.5 games, fell to 7 games a few days back as the Yankees have played good baseball for the last month. It's eight games heading into Saturday.

This could have been a time when the Red Sox really distanced themselves from the Yankees but for now, they'll be happy to go 6-5 and salvage what they can. The two biggest problems the Sox have faced during this malaise has been bad starting pitching and a lack of any hitting with runners in scoring position. The pitching faltering was bound to happen at some point. With Schilling out since the beginning of July and Julian Taverez recently remembering that he was well Julian Tavarez, the Sox fearsome rotation has become much more pedestrian. Beckett has still been a rock (although Boston wasted a great Beckett start last sunday in a 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays) but Dice-K has been knocked around lately. The Dice man gave up six walks the other night to the White Sox. And Wakefield? Well, you can't really count on anything from Wakefield outside of always making his starts. Sometimes those knuckleballs are pretty easy for hitters to pick up. Kason Gabbard has been a bright spot as the young left-hander has put together some good starts. At this point, most fans would want to see him stick in the rotation when Schilling comes back and send Tavarez back to his rightful mop-up position.

The other positives during this frustrating stretch have been Manny Delcarmen, Julio Lugo and Coco Crisp. That wasn't a misprint. All three of those guys have played some of their best baseball in a Red Sox uniform over the last two weeks. Manny has been a force coming out of the bullpen and not allowing inherited runners to score while also blowing batters away with his mid-90's fastball and plus curveball. Lugo is riding a ten game hit streak which for him equals fifty games after the terrible first half he had. He's been consistently getting on base, stealing bases and scoring runs from the eight or nine spot. Lugo provided the exclamation point last night with a grand slam off Jose Contreras as the Red Sox won 10-3. Crisp had a bases-loaded three-run triple last night. He's also been getting on base and actually hitting the ball with some authority. Can't forget to mention that Manny Ramirez has been crushing the ball too, just like any knowledgeable fan knew he would.

The easiest thing to do is panic. When the Sox don't play well and lose, it's a natural reaction for Red Sox fans (not to mention the insufferable local media) to start freaking out about the Yankees. I'm not afraid though, you know why? These aren't the Yankees of the late 90's. They have so many pitching problems (that have been highlighted before) and holes in their lineup that it doesn't even really matter that Clemens came back or if A-Rod hits 70 home runs. The Red Sox lucked out in the sense that they don't have the Indians, Twins or even Mariners in their division. You'd like the A.L. East to be more competitive but with so many veterans on the Sox this year, it's hard to imagine them completely losing their focus and coasting into the playoffs. Every team has hiccups in baseball so hopefully the Red Sox can wake up from this one and take the last two from Chicago before heading out to Cleveland to meet a very underrated Indians team.