Long Way To Fenway

First, welcome back Mike.

The Red Sox struggled to find their way through the first two weeks in the month of June. They seem to have found their stride again, albeit against the National League, but found it none the less. The Sox have won 5 of their last 6, the team is batting better, and with the exception of the broken down Curt Schilling, the pitching staff is returning to form. That final element is what I believe will separate Boston from the rest of the AL East. Boston has a strong and experienced starting rotation and bullpen which will come in handy down the stretch. The series with Atlanta was capped off with Julian Tavarez pitching seven shutout innings and the bats producing 11 runs.

Boston gets a day off in the form of a travel day when they’ll open up a weekend series in their last inter-league match up this season against the NL West leading San Diego Padres. The Padres are fighting for their position however with the Arizona Diamondbacks leading by only a half game. The Sox will get all three of the Padres best and most experienced starters this weekend with Chris Young (6-3), Greg Maddox (6-3) and Jake Peavy (9-1) in that order. The Sox will counter with Dice-K (8-5), Tim Wakefield (7-7) and Josh Beckett (10-1).

As long as the lineup continues to produce like they have against the Giants and Braves, all should be fairly well out west this weekend. However, I know as well as most fans that Boston generally sucks on the road out west. After the series this weekend, they’ll travel up the coast to face the Seattle Mariners who generally play very well at home, but have slipped a bit this year and are only four games above .500 at Safeco Field this year.