Game 46 - Red Sox v. Rays (@Tropicana)

Dare I say, things appear to be turning around?

This was a very good win tonight, not only because it was against the best team in the majors, on the road, and THE division rival at this point in the season, but also because Clay did it again. He's had a very strong start (6IP, 6H, 1BB, 8K) against the 4th best offense in the majors (in terms of runs scored). Clay is now 11th in the AL in ERA and second in the AL in wins, leading the team with 6. And yes, wins are largely meaningless for starters, but I had to throw that in since I have him in one of my espn fantasy leagues (a team that ironically also has Lester and Beckett, so I'm struggling for W's...go Clay!)

At the plate, Big Papi is clearly coming around with a 1.337 OPS over the last 7 days, joining both Kevin Youkilis (1.609) and Victor Martinez (1.400) in the top 35 in the majors for that time period. So the offense is chugging, and the pitching is shaping up, I've even seen much better defense of late (granted, this is largely anecdotal from a handful of web highlights and a few innings here and there from national broadcasts, but hey, it's something).

The Red Sox have won 3 in a row now and are 7.5 games behind Tampa Bay, 2.5 behind the Yankees for the wild card. It's way too early to really put much stock into either number, but at least the deficit is heading in the right direction for once this season :)