Red Sox Ramblin' Man

Perhaps very under the radar over the past week, what with the end-of-lockout coverage and what not, the Red Sox improved to 8-2 since the All-Star break and have built up a 3 game lead on the Yankees, the largest lead they've had over the Bombers at any point since July 2009.

Since the 2-10 start, they're 60-27 (.690 winning percentage), and have put themselves on a pace to win 101 games.

John Lackey over his past 3 starts: 3-0, 1.86 ERA; 18-2 K/BB ratio. He's pitched into at least the 6th inning in all three starts, and yet....his overall ERA is still 6.28.

Josh Beckett's 2.07 ERA is a full 1.74 runs lower than his career ERA of 3.81, and his 0.90 WHIP is 0.32 lower than his 1.22 career total.

Jacoby Ellsbury since the all-star break: .357 average, 1.116 OPS, 5 HR, 9 RBI,

Dustin Pedroia over the same span: .429 average, 1.157 OPS, 2 HR, 6 RBI

JD Drew over the same span: .133 average, .388 OPS, 0 HR, 1 RBI

Carl Crawford since coming of the DL: .375 average, hit safely in 6 of 7 games

Speaking of JD, he went on the DL today. Did I mention already today it feels like Christmas in July?

It's practically a mortal lock that a Red Sox player will win the American League MVP at this point. The only question: is it still Adrian Gonzalez, or is that Jacoby Ellsbury making a furious dash into the discussion?

Bottom line here: The Red Sox are who we thought they were. A juggernaut. They've scored 541 runs, more than any team in all of baseball, and have the second-best run differential (+127 compared to the Yankees +128). They're on pace for 885 runs, which would be the most they've scored in a season since 2005.

With the trade deadline looming, do they need to make a major splash? I don't think there's a need to rock this boat. Could they use another starting pitcher? Sure, who couldn't. But what's out there? Hiroki Kuroda? Ryan Dempster? With Lester and Buchholz coming back off the DL, and Lackey finally looking like the pitcher we thought we were getting when we signed him to an $82.5 million deal, the Sox role 4 deep in the rotation once you get to Beckett. Funny how that works out, as Beckett was originally slated as the no. 4 starter in the rotation. He's a Cy Young contender, no question about it now.

Carlos Beltran? Thanks, but no thanks. If you're going to have to give up Josh Reddick to get him, not only is that a lateral move (at best) for this season, but Beltran is getting up there in age and despite his solid bounce-back season, it's a contract year and there are no guarantees he'd be back. Boston has a great track record recently of developing their own players, rather than making splashes in free agency (Lester, Buchholz, Papelbon, Bard, Ellsbury, Pedroia, Youkilis, and Reddick himself are among the homegrown guys making major contributions this season).

So stay the course, Theo, and stay on the track for an epic showdown in the ALCS with the Yankees.

As a reminder, I'm back on the radio tonight for the Monday night Five Minute Major. I'm really not sure what time I'll be going on, as it's been fluctuating of late, but if I were to guess, I'd say about 8:45-8:50 will be the timeslot. Tune in to 95.9 WATD-FM.