A's you were

The Red Sox lost the finale of their 6 game West Coast road trip yesterday, 5-1 in Oakland. The Sox now return home for some much needed home cooking and need to take advantage if they want to get ahead of the Yankoffs before their next West Coast trip...

(Above: Someone forgot to tell Frank Thomas he's washed up...A 3 run homer and solo shot sunk the Sox) The Sox have Thursday off and then host the Los Angeles Angels over the weekend. The Cleveland Indians then cruise into town for 4 games. The Sox need to take 5 of those 7 games minimum. After that road trip they go to Tampa where have struggled all year then they hit Kansas Sorry for 3 more...They need to take 2 of 3 from Tampa and really should sweep Kansas Sorry.

That puts us at August 11th when the Sox host Baltimore, Detroit, and the Yankoffs for three each. The Sox then round out the end of the month with another West Coast swing, taking on Los Angeles, Seattle and then Oakland.

Between now and then the Red Sox expect to get back David Wells (pitching this week), Keith Foulke (rehab starts this week), Tim Wakefield and (ugh) Matt Clement. If the replacements can keep the rotation together and the bats can get hot the Sox could be looking at their 1st Division title since 1995.