AL East - Its Always a Battle

The Yankees may be the best team in Baseball, but the Rays are right there...

As I write this post the Red Sox are tied with the Oakland Athletics 4 - 4 in the top of the sixth. If the Sox can pull out another win they will pull with in 3 games of the Rays, they are right there. This also means that the Sox will take over 2nd place in the AL East and also the highly coveted Wild Card spot in the AL. I said to people that the Sox would take over the top spot in the East by the 4th of July, but as we all know that didn't happen.

Today the Orioles were able to steal a win from the Rays winning 11 - 10 in the bottom of the 13th. This is the type of game i can really get behind. As a Sox fan you can't help but cheer for whatever team is playing either the Rays or the Yankees. Growing up it was only the Yankees, but know with the Rays finally putting it together there is a three way grudge match coming out of the East. This past weekend the Yankees and the Rays played each other. So I was stuck with the conundrum, "who do I want to see win?". I hate to say this but I sound myself cheering for the Yankees to beat the Rays. I am sorry for everyone out there reading this but I was. I sat at Phebe's with a fellow Sox fan saying that I guess we want the Yankees to win so the Sox can take over 2nd position. Thankfully he was there to reminded me that the Red Sox have to take it one thing at a time, and the first thing they have to do is get around the Ray, who are really right there.

After this three game series with the Oakland A's they will play a three game series against the second worst team in Baseball. From this moment on the Sox need to capitalize on every sub par team and the series that they play against them. They don't have much room to screw around with. We are now in the second half of the season where everything counts. Guys are coming back from injury so excuses are going out the window. This is the time for the bats to get hot and the arms to get loose. Who knows how long we will be able to put our starters out there with all the health problems we have seen this year. Beckett is starting on Friday, and we need his start to be the corner the Sox turn for the rest of the season. I plan on getting back to Boston for another game soon, lets hope its a win!

I will be blogging more often soon about the Sox and their overall performance, and the beginning of Patriots practice, stay tuned!