Boston Red Sox Head West

First stop for the on-fire Boston Red Sox is a three game series with the Colorado Rockies. I have the pitching matchups right here...

6/22/2010 *** at Col 8:40 PM ET NESN/FoxR *** Lester (8-2) vs. Chacin (3-6)
6/23/2010 *** at Col 8:40 PM ET NESN/FoxR *** Lackey (8-3) vs. Jimenez (13-1)
6/24/2010 *** at Col 8:40 PM ET NESN/FoxR *** Matsuzaka (5-2) vs. Hammel (5-3)

Jimenez scares me mostly because of his record and his ERA (under 1.50). Another series win should not be hard to accomplish. My prediction? The Sox will take two of three. And that's good enough for me. Three? That's even better, but it's one game at a time, as always. With the pinstriper's loss yesterday, the Red Sox and the Rays are only a 1/2 game back, tied for second place in the AL East. Not bad for a team whose outfield has literally been torn apart. Ellsbury is still out, Cameron, when he can play, is at about 65% and JD Drew will be back soon. The fill-ins have been terrific. In the middle of May, Boston's record was 11-14 and tension abounded in the clubhouse and throughout all of Red Sox Nation. But then things changed and since then their record has been 32-14. They have the third best record in all of major league baseball and they're not even at full strength...yet. Catcher Victor Martinez had this to say about that...

"We know the season is about six months. If the season was just April, we were done. But everyone here knows the season is six months. It doesn’t matter how you start. It’s how you finish. Everyone in this room has been around for a long time. We kept patient, kept coming to the park with the same attitude, and kept working hard. The idea was keep working hard and things will turn around for us.”

And turn around it did, much to my delight. Yours too, I'd wager. That's it from here now. We need another good start from Jon Lester and, for a change, maybe John Lackey will NOT give up five runs on Wednesday. After that, on Thursday, Daisuke Matsuzaka will finally return. Hopes are high and the boos will be audible if he fails to deliver. You can click on this post's title for more and as always, be well.