Nothing to fear but fear itself

You'll have to excuse my prolonged absence from the blog, as a Sox fan I was very close to jumping off a bridge since the Yankees had cut the Sox lead (once 14.5 games) down to four games a few times in the last few weeks. But as fast as you can say-Devil Rays-the Sox are six up on the Yankees thanks to two straight wins in Tampa while the Yankees lost a 10 inning game to the Angels on Monday and got smoked-18-9 last night.

If you're not a moron (something that seems more and more rare these days, especially in Red Sox Nation), you had to see that starting on Monday, the Sox had three at Tampa and four at the White Sox (who had just lost eight in a row). A complete cake walk, going into those seven games, I expected the Sox to go 5-2. As for the Yanks, they had three at the always tough Angels and then four at the Tigers. To top it off, the Yanks and Sox finally meet again next Tuesday-Thursday for a three game set. Therefore, the next eight games are huge to each team. If the Sox continue to pile up wins, they'll be nearly impossible to catch. The Yankees have to turn it around quickly or they'll dig a huge hole. Thinking they'll get the Wild Card is not given either since the Mariners continue to play good baseball.

It's only natural that in Boston, we're paranoid about the Yankees. We haven't won the A.L. East since 1995. This isn't such a big deal since the advent of the Wild Card but still, enough is enough. It's time to take the division after leading almost all season. The Sox haven't changed much as the season has gone along. They have great starting pitching, very good relief (don't even ask me about Eric Gagne) and a good lineup. The lineup can certainly lay down from time to time and is questionable against left-handers but no team is perfect. With a solid week, the Sox will put themselves in prime position to have a memorable September, thus springboarding them to October-when the real baseball starts. 36 games left.

Will the real Boston Red Sox please stand up?

I'll make this short: the Sox are scuffling. They've lost 8 of 13 in June while the Yankees have won their last nine in a row. The 14.5 game lead has been trimmed to 7.5 games on June 15. Time to panic? Not really. The Yankees are currently playing above their heads and given time (and tougher competition) they'll come back to earth once their bullpen is counted on in a series of close games. Conversely, the Sox are doing everything badly; terrible hitting, inconsistent pitching and shaky defense. This is not the real Red Sox, version 2007.
The Red Sox lost their last two games, 12-2 and 7-1 to the Colorado Rockies at Fenway. Schilling and Beckett both got shelled which was surprising. The Rockies can hit but there's no reason why the Sox should be held to 5 runs against them in a three game series. This weekend, Barry Bonds and his accompanying circus come to town with the San Francisco Giants. I'd like to see the Sox take two out of three and get back on track so to speak. The Yankees host the Mets (who've lost nine of their last 10). Clemens is going tonight. In a perfect world, he'd get shelled while Freddie Krueger (Julian Tavarez) outduels Barry Zito-probably the most overrated pitcher of the last 10 years.
Nothing is ever easy in baseball and I guess as Red Sox fans we should know better than to count on a division title in May. The Yankees still own most of the free world so they can never be counted out. Plus, it makes it more interesting if they're in it for most of the season. I'm not losing confidence, every team goes through bad spells but the fact that we have three automatic outs in our everyday lineup-Lugo, Drew and Crisp-is pretty scary. Regardless, I'd take Schilling, Beckett, Wakefield, Dice-K and Tavarez/Lester over Petitte, Clemens, Mussina, Wang and Clippard any day of the week. And Papelbon vs. Rivera is not even close anymore.