With 40% of the season done, the Boston Red Sox find themselves with a 37-28 record and are sitting four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees for first place in the AL East. At this time last year, the Red Sox had a 38-25 record and were in first place over the Yankees by two games.
At some point you have to figure the Yankees and Rays will hit a little lull but with their talent it may not happen. And with the trade deadline just over seven weeks away, you have to figure both teams will be players in the market as well as the Red Sox.
For the most part, the Red Sox have been playing good baseball as of late despite all the injuries they’ve suffered. The catalyst at the top of the lineup, Jacoby Ellsbury, has spent most of the season on the disabled list with the rib injury suffered in the collision with Adrian Beltre. Mike Cameron has battled an abdominal injury all season and Jeremy Hermida is on the DL with a rib injury suffered in a different collision with Beltre.
And that’s not including the pitchers. Currently two starters are on the DL in Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Dustin Pedroia had been struggling due to a knee injury, Marco Scutaro’s been battling a neck issue and Kevin Youkilis has had back spasms.
But throughout that, the Red Sox have one of the best records in MLB since May due to the strong starting pitching they’ve gotten. Plus the defense has gotten better and has started to look like what Theo Epstein promised. Even the offense, which by some pundits wasn’t supposed to be strong this year for the Red Sox, has performed.
So what do the Red Sox need to do right now. Just get healthy. A healthy Red Sox team is a team that will give problems to everyone. I would expect the Red Sox to be looking at relief pitchers as we get towards the trade deadline.
Before we go, please take a few moments and vote 25 times for the Red Sox in the AL All-Star voting. Lord knows they need it.
We’ll be back later today with the lineups for tonight’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, batter/pitcher matchups, news and any links from the day.
For more slices of Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, ESPN Boston, NESN, Providence Journal and WEEI websites.
