Red Sox In Command

There was a time about a month ago that many Red Sox fans were ready to call it quits and give up on the 2005 season. Admit it -- it was only natural. The Sox were running up hill in the AL East and the Baltimore Orioles were sprinting down hill. Even the New York Yankees -- off to a terrible start -- were creeping up in the standings. The Orioles were hitting, they were pitching and of course they were winning. For the first time since 1997, Baltimore was cruising through the AL East. At the same time the Red Sox were sort of hitting, kind of pitching and as a result they were playing .500 baseball. It looked like Boston would finish out of first place once again. That's the life of a Boston Red Sox fan. No matter what positives occur, there are 100 more negatives around the corner. Win the World Series in 2004? Win it again in 2005! And we want the AL East crown to boot. If we had looked a little closer at the time, all of those worries would have been for not. Yes, the O's were hot but they had holes big enough to fit George Steinbrenner's wallet through. The bullpen was suspect other than B.J. Ryan, the starting pitching was not as good (Bruce Chen) as it was performing and not including Miguel Tejada, Melvin Mora and Brian Roberts, the lineup was suspect as well. And Baltimore has suffered through injuries as well. Roberts, catcher Javy Lopez, outfielder Sammy Sosa, pitcher Erik Bedard and a slew of other Orioles have been banged up. As for the Red Sox, their early season problems -- Curt Schilling's injury, Manny Ramirez' early slump, the struggles of the bullpen -- have been solved. Schilling is healthy and should be back in a week. Manny is hitting like Manny. And the 'pen has been much better as of late. The results have been outstanding. A few weeks ago they were 33-29 and playing with no spark. Today they stand at 43-30 and hold a 1.5-game lead over the Orioles in the East. Now it is the Red Sox that look like they will run away with the division while the Orioles fight with everything they have to remain in the playoff chase. Expect the Red Sox to have an easier time staying on top than the Orioles did.