Times for good for those of us who reside in Red Sox Nation. Boston comes into Sunday’s games on a pace to win 111 games. They’ve got a comfortable seven-game lead on a New York Yankees team that’s on a pace to exceed 100 victories themselves. The Red Sox are the 11-4 betting favorite to […]
The Boston Red Sox are solidly on a pace to win 100 games for the first time since 1946, with a .686 win percentage coming into the weekend. Yet earlier this week, as I was driving home in New England, the WEEI talk shows were ablaze with a sense of urgency after losing a home […]
One of the more surprising developments of the second half of the major league baseball season has been the blowing open of the AL East race. While I’m enough of a partisan Boston fan to still be on pins and needles as they get set for a three-game series with Tampa Bay starting tomorrow, I also know how I’d view a race that had a margin of 7 ½ games with three weeks left if I were on the outside looking in—as all but over.
In the packed horse race that is the American League East, the Boston Red Sox have maintained a small, but persistent lead. The margin is currently 3 ½ games coming into Thursday night’s games. But questions regarding the pitching, and a crucial lingering injury make one wonder just how long the Sox can hold on to the top spot in a ruthlessly tough division where all five teams are over .500.
The Boston Red Sox have been the toast of baseball in the first four weeks of the season, rolling to an 18-8 record and the best record in the majors. After a soap opera year of 2012, a new manager and a new attitude have produced some new results. In today’s American League MLB coverage we’ll look at how the Red Sox have been doing it, speculate on their long-term chances and take a brief look at the rest of the AL.
One of these AL East teams was aggressive in the offseason, made a big splash and is getting a lot of attention as the candidate to displace the New York Yankees atop the American League East. The other team is coming off a bad year, one of the biggest salary dumps in history and is laying relatively low. Normally you’d have no trouble identifying which of these teams is the Toronto Blue Jays and which is the Boston Red Sox. But this year, the Jays & Sox have reversed roles—Toronto even traded Boston their manager for good measure. TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage previews both teams and measures their chances against the projected win total Las Vegas has posted for each.