By Phil Shore, YawkeyTalkies Correspondent
The Red Sox had a golden opportunity. Coming into the week, the Red Sox narrowed the gap between them and AL East leading New York Yankees. Before the three-game series that starts tonight, the Sox had four against the struggling Kansas City Royals, while New York faced off against the AL West leading Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Sox could’ve put themselves in a position to overtake the division lead with a good series against the Yanks.
Instead, they lost the first two games of the Royals series—both games by at least three runs—and now sit six games behind New York.
While there is still mathematically a chance to catch them, it looks like Boston will have to settle for the Wild Card.
But perhaps more importantly then the standings, a good series for either team could provide a huge psychological boost of confidence heading into October,.
The Red Sox started off the year with a huge mental edge against the Yankees, winning all eight games in the first half of the season, taking home three brooms to sweep up what was left of Yankee trash.
But, tables turned after the All-Star break, and the [...]

 
By Kevin Hassett, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
I may not be our beloved Red Sox Nation President, Jerry Remy, but I figured I would address you all anyway on where are pitching rotation is at as we head toward October, where it counts, because we all know it has been anything but consistent this season.
Despite our two-game lead in the wildcard coming into this weekend, I was a bit worried about our rotation.  A month ago, I would’ve said a three-game sweep of the Rays, giving up just two runs in the process, would’ve been incredible. Not to mention our lead over the Rangers doubling to four games, and and still growing to 5-1/2 today.
These are not the same feared Rays, however, as the defending AL champs have all but packed their golf clubs for the winter. Following the series, Tampa Bay was a dismal 1-12 for September and in a severe offensive drought, having only scored two runs or less in seven games and batting just .207 for the month. Therefore, I have to remain cautiously optimistic about our pitching performance this past weekend.
Our pitchers have proven themselves this time of year before, however, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to [...]