Did a little research this morning on the state of the Red Sox, who lost 21 of 29 in August… entering the last game of the current series with the White Sox, the club is eight back of the Yanks in the East division and six back of the Twins for the wild card spot.
In reality, the Sox not only need to start winning but the Twins, Yanks, and White Sox need to fall into a funk similar to what Boston experienced in August and I just don’t see that happening. If New York plays .500 ball for the rest of the season (13-12), Boston would need to win 21 of their last 23 to win the division outright — New York has already won the season series. Plus, the last weekend of the season has the Twinks and the Pale Hose squaring off for three games, so Boston really needs to get ahead of those two teams before then to have a realistic chance to earn the wild card, and they have just three weeks and 20 games to do that.
After 2004, I’m sure anything is possible but, with just one starter still in the rotation from the first week of the season (Josh Beckett) and the closer (Jonathan Papelbon) shelved for possibly the rest of the year, can the Sox pull off the near-impossible? To me, shipping David Wells to San Diego pretty much told me that the Sox were raising the white flag on the season. But, we shall see…
If the Sox are eliminated, I’m going to root for the Tigers if they can hang on and win the division (four games up on Minnesota right now). After years of futility — 12 straight losing seasons dating back to 1994 — it would be nice to see them go the distance. Jim Leyland is severely underrated as a head coach and, IMO, more than deserves his second Manager of the Year award.