The Red Sox have an illustrious history of collapsing down the stretch. As someone who has watched this team all year, I can tell you that Boston has been exceedingly mediocre after May. The Red Sox shouldn't scare anyone, and certainly not the Yankees who have defeated Boston in 9 consecutive September games, and 8 of the last 10 regular season games.
Fortunately, falling out of first place doesn't really matter. With a 4 1/2 game lead over New York, and New York's 3 1/2 game lead over Detroit for the wild card, Boston effectively has a 6-7 game cushion to make the playoffs. And with just 14 games to play, most of them against sub-.500 teams, Boston could still limp into the playoffs with a record of 5-9 during this final stretch (assuming Detroit doesn't go 11-3 or 12-2.) A 7-7 record would all but clinch a spot no matter what Detroit does.
Once in the playoffs, anything can happen. The Red Sox have fared well against the Indians this year and seem to hang in there with the Angels. No one in the National League scares me. Boston would just have to hope that the Yankees get taken down in the first round.
|