Calm Before the Storm

First team to 80 wins! It's not that important, considering the amount of baseball still left to be played. Still cool though.

Since splitting last weekend’s series with the Los Angeles Angels the Sox have gone 6-and-1 including a four game sweep of the Chicago White Sox at US Cellular Field. In said series against the pale sox, the Red Sox outscored their opponent 46 to seven. The Sox have been relying on the “big inning” and sometimes have been having more than one per game. The run bonanza was sparked by, well, basically everyone. The highlights of course include Ortiz’s performance on Friday night hitting two home runs and moving him into a tie with the likes of Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski for multiple home runs in a game, and anytime a current player moves into a tie or breaks a record that belonged to Yaz, it’s certainly noteworthy.

Dustin Pedroia has also made more noise this week in his campaign for American League Rookie of the Year, hitting .262 with an OPS of .718 and three RBI’s. Certainly not out of this world, however quite solid. Mike Lowell has had stellar outings against the Devil Rays earlier in the week and the ChiSox this weekend with a team high 11 runs batted in. Former Rookie of the Year Eric Hinske has filled in quite well since last week getting on base frequently and racking up an OPS of 1.464, second only to Ortiz.

The Red Sox starters have also been solid. If Dice-K didn’t make his one fateful mistake in Tampa on Wednesday, giving up a two-run homer to BJ Upton, we’d be talking about Boston’s seven game winning streak. Jon Lester is still a bit of a question mark having some solid starts but basically having a rough go of it since being called up from the PawSox in late July. Surprisingly, Julian Tavarez pitched very well today in place of Lester. I watched the entire game while at my fantasy football draft and the quality of his pitches and pitch counts were that of, well, a good starter. I’m not ready to jump on the JT bandwagon, since he will be back in the bullpen when Francona and staff feel that Lester is ready to resume his roll in the five spot. Obviously, the bullpen hasn’t had much of workout, at least from the standpoint of it being meaningful. When you’re taking nine or 10 run leads into the seventh, eighth and ninth innings all you’re really doing is practicing. That’s fine, because they’re going to need all the practice they can get going into the coming week.

Jumping back a bit to the subject of starting pitching, the Sox will throw the “big three” as they wrap up their 10 game road trip in the Bronx as they face down the New York Yankees. Dice-K, Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling will all start in that order. The two teams have not played since June, where the Sox were nearly swept at Fenway as the Yanks where in the midst of torrent streak of winning baseball. Now, the Yanks are in a bit of a slump by the standards they’ve set since early June. They have been having a rough go on the road away from the confines of Yankee Stadium against quality opponents. They’re currently 2-and-4 against the Angels and Detroit Tigers, who they will wrap a four game series with tomorrow night and Comerica Park.

So now it’s time to start breaking down the rest of the regular season picture in regards to the Red Sox and Yankees. As it currently stands, the Sox will go in with no worse than a seven game lead on Tuesday night. This plays out well considering that if the Sox get swept (at worst) the Yankees will still be four games back which is where the two teams were before the Yanks last road trip. On the flip side (at best) if the Yankees drop another game to Detroit and the Sox sweep in New York, the good guys will have an 11 game lead come Thursday about 4:30 Central Time. Of course these are obvious extremes with probably neither one coming to fruition.

Looking a couple series’ beyond the AL East showdown the Sox will return home to face two other AL East opponents in the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays. The Yankees will stay at home as well and play the D-Rays and Wild Card competition in the Seattle Mariners. Here’s another interesting point to consider when wrapping up the season for these two teams. New York has two more road trips including a nine gamer starting September 7^th and won’t return home until the 17^th which includes a trip up to Boston. They will also finish the season on the road in Tampa and Baltimore. I’m sure both teams would love to play spoiler to their playoff and (God forbid they’re in contention) dreams of another division crown. The Red Sox, on the other hand, also have two road trips. Don’t be fooled, it won’t be quite as challenging. The Sox will play the O’s, Jays and Devil Rays on the road for a total of ten games. The rest will be played at home against mostly divisional foes. The Sox have the easier road, but they’ll need to capitalize on every opportunity despite the lack of measurable competition.

This may be the most important fact regarding these two teams, and I'm placing this in a separate paragraph for a reason. The Yankees are 41-and-24 at home, on the road they're an unimpressive 31-and-34. Compare that to Boston's 40-and-23 at Fenway and 40-and-28 on the road. The Yankees play 15 out of their last 31 games away from the Bronx.

Are the Sox heating up for their eventual run into and hopefully through the playoffs? Or were the White Sox just that bad? I’m thinking a combination of the two, but playing this well against teams like the White Sox is exactly what Boston will need to do to keep their lead on the Yankees until the end of September.