Red Sox Win, Lead is Four

    The Red Sox won a pivotal game last night against ace James Shields and the Tampa Bay Rays to extend their lead in the Wild Card to four games and now trail the Yankees by only 3.5 games in the division.  Josh Beckett returned for the Red Sox after missing time with a sprained ankle and pitched well enough to get the win.
    The real story of the game was the Sox bullpen.  They were finally able to shut down the Rays offense as Aceves, Bard, and Papelbon combined to strike out the last eight batters.  Daniel Bard, the Sox eighth inning pitcher, has struggled lately and was the main reason the Sox lost on Wednesday to the Blue Jays as he walked two and gave up two runs.  To see him strike out the side was reassuring that when his stuff is on, he can be a dominant set-up man to get to Papelbon in the ninth.  
    Jon Lester will take the mound today against RHP Niemann for the Rays.  This is a crucial game because tomorrow's pitching matchup of David Price vs Tim Wakefield does not favor the Sox whatsoever.  If the Sox can win today they will have at least a four game lead in the Wild Card with only 12 games to go after this weekends series.  They face the Orioles seven out of those twelve games and should be able to slam the door shut on the Rays.  We all remember what happened to the NY Mets a few years ago and the late season collapse they had so let's not count the Rays out quite yet.  With a strong performance by Beckett last night and Lester on the mound today, there is still a possibility for this team to go deep in the postseason behind these two pitchers.  Let's just hope everyone gets healthy and our bats get hot at the right time.  Where's Kevin Millar when you need him to tell these guys to cowboy up!