Day 89: Hey Guys! What About the Red Sox?

With all that's been happening in Boston sports the past few weeks, not much attention has been paid to the Red Sox. Sure... the Bruins were in the Stanley Cup and the Celtics just cleaned house in preparation for their rebuilding phase. Oh yeah... and then there's this thing going on with Aaron Hernandez. But the Red Sox are still in first place, folks—and they've officially passed the halfway point of the season!

The Sox lead the AL East by 3.5 games over the Orioles and continue to hold the second best record in baseball. The St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates are tied for the best. (Yes, I did say Pirates... are you as shocked as I am?) Over the last week alone, the top four in the lineup—Ellsbury, Victorino, Pedroia and Ortiz are ALL batting over .420 with 41 total hits. And Ellsbury and Victorino, after enduring early season slumps, are both inching closer to that .300 mark.

John Lackey had yet another great start against the Rockies earlier this week, notching his fifth win with a season high 12 strikeouts. Jon Lester also looked a lot better last night against the recently wicked hot Blue Jays after struggling through most of the month, but left the game when he jammed his hip early in the eighth. Oh dear. The bullpen still needs some work, but Koji Uehara appears to have settled nicely into the closer role. We shall see...

Last night's game was especially entertaining with the Sox sending 11 men to the dish in the second inning and scoring all seven of their runs. Magical, I tell you! The Toronto starter, who had currently gone 16+ innings without allowing an earned run, never finished the inning. If you went to bed soon after the second, you didn't miss much. That's the only scoring they did all night and fortunately, the Blue Jays couldn't catch up.

I've always been a glass half empty kinda girl when it comes to the Red Sox. For some reason, I just can't accept that they're actually good this season, especially when coming in to this year, no one had high hopes for them. Kudos to John Farrell for making it work! I'd really love to start believing in them again, but I'm afraid I might jinx it.