Is it just me, or are the Red Sox hitting their stride at exactly the right time?
They went into a nine game road trip with their backs to the wall. The Ozzies and the Twins were tighter than a Papelbon fastball. The Rays were running away with the division. Injuries were piling up everywhere, and the Sox looked like they were going to hit the golf course early this year.
And then they go to Baltimore, Toronto and New York. They go 6-3. They chalk up gobs and gobs of runs. They gain ground on the Twins, they put themselves a couple games clear in the wild card chase, and almost forget about the Gups and their miracle season.
The injuries keep piling up. Beckett gets scratched from another start or two. He might have a bum elbow. He's pushed back another week. This going into a Wild Card Showdown with the Ozzies.
So naturally, Daisuke comes on and pitches eight shutout innings in his best performance of the year. The following night an unknown stiff comes up and gives Francona five. Bango! The Sox have taken two of three.
Even Sunday's loss -- a game the Sox should not have lost, given all the men left on base -- seemed like a blip on the radar.
And sure enough, last night Francona's men took on the Os, picking up where they had left off a couple of weeks ago.
Youkie was back from the sickbed. Coco was back from the sickbed. Pedroia grabbed a couple more hits and a pair of game changing RBI. Varitek clobbered another homer. Jeff Bailey cold cocked a homer!
Paul Byrd gave up a pair of gophers, but otherwise pitched extremely well, even though it looked for a time the Os were going to hang a loss on him.
And now, look at the standings, and you'll see two things:
1. The Gups have likely won the division.
2. The Sox have likely won the Wild Card.
Let's be perfectly blunt. The Sox aren't going to make up 5.5 games any more than the Twins are going to make up three with 25 remaining.
Sure, the Sox have six against the Gups. Sure, we could shave a few games off the margin. But the Gups have done enough to get to the playoffs, as bizare as that sounds.
And the Twins/White Sox? They better focus on each other rather than worrying about beating us out for the Wild Card. Neither of 'em is going to make up three games, especially if we reel off wins the way we have been for the past two or three weeks.
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