There also will be minimal pressure on the White Sox or Twins. No one is expecting any great playoff heroics to come out of the AL Central.
The Red Sox? C'mon, they're in a great position. Everybody knows what they don't have, or at least may not have. Mike Lowell is a really important piece of the puzzle. He is a valuable two-way player, and his absence would have an impact on Terry Francona's in-game maneuverings. It would be nice to have a healthy Lowell, but it's rather obvious that's not going to be possible until 2009.
And though I realize it is indeed difficult at times to remember that J.D. Drew is actually a member of this ball club, he's simply doing what J.D. Drew very often does, since he participated in fewer than 110 games for the fifth time in a 10-year run as a major league regular. The maddening thing is that he can play. We can all grit our teeth about the $14 million per for such a perennial tease, but in the end it's not our money.
So if Francona has to go with Jed Lowrie at third and Alex Cora at short, so be it. Cora can be a good short-term player. And if this means that if Francona hits for Cora and winds up with Kevin Youkilis moving to third, Lowrie back to short, and either Sean Casey or Mark Kotsay finishing up at first, well, that's not so horrible, either. Theo did not leave his manager's cupboard bare.
But, sure you worry about the lineup. Jason Varitek continues to flounder. Lowrie's problems since mid-August likewise have been very well-documented, but at least he'll be able to bat righthanded (where his OPS is 300 points higher than when he bats lefty) against Joe Saunders in Game 3. Cora is a crapshoot with the bat in his hands. So yes, it's very possible the production could stop after the sixth spot in the order.
That may not matter. For, if the Red Sox are to defend their championship, or at the very least advance to the ALCS for the fourth time in six years, it's not going to have all that much to do with the batting order. It will be about the men on the hill, and that's why there was cause for some nice cautious, safe, rational optimism - at least until the surprising news that Josh Beckett has an oblique issue and will be pushed back to Game 3.
