Questions Remain

So the Red Sox go back to Fenway after their 10 game road trip and play host to the Baltimore Orioles this weekend while the back-in-the hunt again Yankees, fresh off of their three game sweep of the Red Sox, entertain the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the Bronx. Presented with a golden opportunity to vanquish the Yankees for good in the American League's Eastern Division and to dent the Yankees' Wild Card quest, the Red Sox instead find themselves instead up 5 games up in the AL East race and the Yankees in first place in the Wild Card standings.

With beanballs forgotten (at least until September 14th) and the fashion police likely off to monitor woman's wear at center court at the U.S. Open, introspection demands pondering the implications of the past three days.

Will the Red Sox be in the playoffs? Although the 2007 edition of the Red Sox is to date, only a good team, not a great team, rest assured there will be baseball in the Hub come October. The Red Sox have the best record in baseball and have managed to maintain at least a four game lead over the Yankees for the past 5 months. They have one of the best, if not the best, pitching staffs in the American League. While their offense this season has been at best inconsistent and at worst lethargic, the Red Sox are in the top 3 in the American League in most of the important offensive categories. They also play Baltimore and Tampa Bay 13 more times.

Will the Yankees be in the playoffs? The Yankees are a team that knows how to get into the post-season and these past three days may point to the unwelcome truth that this year, the Yankees may be a team that is built for the post-season. They will be in the playoffs unless Seattle manages to hang tough during the next ten days--facing a fairly grueling schedule--and then manages to prevail in the wild card race because of a light schedule over their last 13 games.

Will J.D. Drew ever swing his bat? Watching this series, Your Red Sox Diarist gave up counting the amount of times J.D. Drew came up to the plate and then went back to the dugout without ever swinging his bat. Over the past three days J.D. Drew went 1-11 striking out three times, grounding into 2 double plays and stranding three runners in scoring position.

What is life like without Manny? Manny Ramirez is having the worst offensive year of his career. That said, he is batting .292 has an OBP of .385 an OPS of .880, 20 HR and 86 RBIs-offensive stats that every team in baseball would be happy to have. The past three days have once again shown that Manny is the straw that stirs the drink of the Red Sox offense and that his presence is a key to its good fortunes. It will be interesting to watch the impact Manny's continued absence will have on the team as he recovers from a strained oblique.

What would your playoff rotation be? If I am Joe Torre that is an easy question as Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens and Chien Ming Wang were playoff caliber the past three days and would be a formidable threesome in the post-season. Terry Francona will have a more difficult time however choosing his three starters for the playoffs. The collective wisdom previously held that it would be Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Curt Schilling come October, despite Tim Wakefield being the American League's co-leader in wins.. These past three days has made things more difficult. While Beckett is a lock and Schilling's good performance on Thursday (his second in a row) would seem to enhance his case, Dice-K's propensity to give up the home run complicates Tito's decision.

Are the Yankees Dice-K's Daddy? Facing the Yankees three times this season Dice-K is 2-1 with a 7.06 ERA and a WHIP of 1.41.

For what it's worth. The Yankees have won 7 of the last 9 games against the Red Sox and lead the season series 8 to 7.

Relaxing few days in the Bronx

It is too bad I was not watching the Red Sox play the White Sox yesterday on mlb.tv as it would have been cool to see Ozzie Guillen's head spontaneously combust when the Red Sox put 4 more runs on the board in the 5th inning of Sunday's matinee game. The Red Sox eventually won the game 11-1, and in the process tied a 58 year old Red Sox record by scoring 46 runs over a 4 game series.

I spoke to O'Brien this morning about Sunday's game and the weekend as a whole, and we agreed that one of the best things to come out of the series is that we-meaning me, O'Brien and the Red Sox-get to relax going into the 3 games against the Yankees starting Tuesday in the Bronx. Up by 7 ½ games going into Monday's off-day, no matter what the Yankees do against the Tigers on Monday (the Yankees still have a game against the Tigers on Monday), the Red Sox can come out of the 3 game set with the Yankees no worse than being 4 games up over New York in the AL East. This is where things stood last week and this is the worst case scenario. A more likely scenario is the Red Sox win 1 of 3 in the Big Apple and go back to Fenway 6 games up after an impressive 7-3 roadtrip. As expected, both managers have their pitching rotations lined up for the three games. On Tuesday, Dice-K kicks things off against Andy Pettitte, on Wednesday Josh Beckett goes against Roger Clemens-in perhaps what may prove to be the most exciting game of the series-at least pitching-wise-and on Thursday, Curt Schilling faces Chien Ming Wang.

Going into this series the Yankees know deep down that they have to sweep to remain a viable contender for the AL East division crown. The Red Sox know that they can lose three in a row and it will not really matter. By the time the Red Sox leave New York on Thursday, both teams will only have 28 games remaining in the 2007 campaign. For the first time in a very long time, the Red Sox can face off against the Yankees in August and not be overly concerned with the outcome. They can just play their game--which has earned them the best record in baseball this year. They can just relax.