The Boston Red Sox at the 100 Game Mark
A quick assessment after the Red Sox played their 100th game of the 2007 season last night against Cleveland - they won 1-0 on an excellent outing by Dice-K.
The Red Sox once again own the best record in baseball (61-39), thanks to a 5-game winning streak.
They are 7.5 games up on the Yankees, 11 up on Toronto, and 15 up on Baltimore. The down side is that the Yankees are hot again. They have matched the Sox 5-game winning streak, and are 8-2 over the last 10 (to the Sox 6-4). In fact, the whole AL east has gotten more competitive with 3 teams now at or above .500. The team to worry about, though, is the Yankees. If the Yankees can sustain their hot streak they could be a problem…
Pitching is very very good. 5 to 6 good starters and a strong bullpen with perhaps the best setup man (Okagima) and closer (Papplebon). Not too many worries here.
Hitting. This is the 2007 Red Sox achilles tendon. The Red Sox hitting is weak and could get weaker depending on Pappi’s health. And although the power guys are still hitting fairly well, there has been a decline in power - Papi has only 16 home runs and Manny has 15. On July 25th of 2006, Ortiz alone had 33 home runs… If anything needs to be done before the trade deadline it is some improvement to the hitting.
Predicted outcome - the Yankees will close a little more and make it tense for Red Sox Nation, but the Sox will win out. The Yankees will also make a run on the wild card (they are now only 4.5 out with Cleveland and Seattle in front of them). I think that the Yanks will fall a game or two short of the Wild Card and Torrie will be gone at season’s end.