Out Of Break, Red Sox 'Need To Get Hot'
BOSTON (CBS) - The Red Sox begin the unofficial second half of the season Friday night knowing they need to put together a solid string of baseball.
One week ago, with the Sox set to begin a seven-game West Coast trip, they were sitting at 40-35, 6.5 back of the Yankees in the AL East.
What followed was a 2-5 trip against the lowly Mariners and Athletics. When Boston returned home, they dropped three of four to the Yankees to hit the break at .500, 9.5 back of the New York in the AL East.
They've been resting their laurels on injured players returning, and eventually rounding out into the team they envisioned at the start of spring training.
But now they know it's time to stop talking, and start doing.
"We've been saying for a while we feel like we have a good team here, but at some point you have to show it on the field," general manager Ben Cherington said Thursday. "The reality is we are .500 the day after the all-star break. We have good players that have been playing; we have good players on the way back getting healthy. But at some point you have to stop talking about the cavalry coming back and start winning games."
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While Boston had their chance to take advantage of lesser opponents in Seattle and Oakland, they now open a stretch where their next six series are against teams with a .500 record or better. It starts with a three-game set in Tampa against the 45-41 Rays.
"We need to get hot sometime," said manager Bobby Valentine. "I don't know if you have to snap your finger and say this is the time. We're going to run off a good run. Or two. Or three."
"Everyone said the last couple weeks were going to be telling because we were playing teams that weren't that good," noted Valentine. "These are the teams we are playing and every game is important until the end."
The Red Sox brass are hoping their recent trip out West and dropping three games -- at home -- to their biggest rival are just a quick step back before they take a giant leap forward. With signs pointing to Jacoby Ellsbury and Will Middlebrooks returning Friday night, and the stretch of baseball prior to that 'blip in the radar' that saw Boston go 11-3, the Sox are hoping it won't take long to right the ship.
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And all of that will go into a better atmosphere surrounding the team.
"We played winning baseball for about two months and it wasn't like every day of those two months were perfect but we played winning baseball for two months and had a tough week, so we just have to get back to playing winning baseball," said Cherington. "It's sort of classic chicken or the egg thing. When things are going well and you're winning it feels like a much better atmosphere. When you're not it doesn't feel as good of an atmosphere. I believe we have a group of guys -- everyone in uniform --- who's working hard, are tough and talented enough for us to pull together and win a lot of games in the second half and if we do that the atmosphere will seem pretty good. We just have to go do that."
Despite all that has gone on, Boston remains just 2.5 games back in the Wild Card standings.
