It's been another week, so let's check in on the AL East standings:
For the first time this season the Sox fell out of first place. That tends to happen when you lose games that should be able to win. The Sox lost 2 out of 3 to the Jays and then just barely won 2 out of 3 from the Rays. It could have been worse, it surely could have been better. The Sox were helped out by having Baltimore and NY lose some games as well. The Sox aren't the stinging team they were out of the gate going 20-8, but they also aren't the slumping team we saw go 2-9. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.
The next week for the Sox consists of road series with the Twins and White Sox and then heading home to face old friend Terry Francona and his Cleveland Indians. I'd say that the Sox should be able to do some damage here, but since we lost 3 out of 4 at home to the Twins, you never know. I'm gonna say this all season, I think the Sox season will live and die by their pitching. Lester and Buchholz have been everything we've wanted them to be and more. The jury is still out on Lackey, Dempster and Doubront. As for the bullpen, we have the strength of members like Uehara and Tazawa. The Sox have had bad luck with closers with Hanrahan and Bailey both being on the DL. Hanrahan is done for the season having just had Tommy John and tendon surgery, but things all look like Bailey will be back by the end of the weekend.
So, it'll be interesting to see where the Sox stand 7 days from now.
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