The Rays pulled off a tough win last night and show again why they are still in first place this late in the season.  They have 5 good guys in the rotation who will give them 5 good innings and their offense doesn’t quit.  Playing a first place team on the road is always tough and last night Tampa Bay showed why.  Sonnanstine did his best to match Josh Beckett, and Carlos Pena kept his team in the game, allowing the Rays to get to the Sox bullpen.

Tonight’s game is pivotal, but the next series in Toronto could be equally as important.  As I have said throughout the year, Toronto always play the Red Sox tough and this season the Blue Jays are 43-30 at home.

Beyond Tampa Bay and Toronto, the road to the World Series doesn’t get any easier because the Angels are still the best team in the AL.

Well it was another tough match-up against Toronto this weekend, just as it has been for the Red Sox against Blue Jay teams over the last 20 years.  Josh Beckett missed his locations, but I don’t think it has anything to do with injury.  The only thing to do after a series like that is to move on and play the next game.

Now, I hope the Red Sox leave Baltimore with three wins and we can then take our chances in New York and Toronto.  I think Toronto will be a tougher series than the Yankees; I never worry about New York.  If you look at the salaries they should win the World Series every year but they can’t put it together.  When you throw 9 All Stars out there you expect to win.

Tonight kicks off an important series because with Tampa Bay playing well and the Twins staying close in the Wild Card Race, the Red Sox need to gain some momentum.

Like I posted earlier this week, Fenway Park has really changed over the years.  There is a ton of new seating, the advertising on the outfield walls, the .406 club and even the padded walls are fairly recent.  The issue is that the demand for tickets is so high that the ownership knows they could fill a larger ballpark.  With the cost to build in Boston so high and the mystique that surrounds Fenway, the Red Sox ownership has done a good job of improving the existing facility.

If you go to a modern ballpark, it is likely to be more of a stadium than a ballpark. A lot of these stadiums have a big problem filling these seats: Tampa Bay holds 40,000 but they can’t get enough people in stadium. If you go to Toronto, how many times is Sky Dome empty? I hear the Florida Marlins average about 8,000 fans at a home game during the week.

In the long run, as salaries get higher and the demand for tickets remains, Red Sox ownership may feel the need to get more people into the ballpark.  I am sure they are well aware that nothing looks worse than an empty stadium.

So, they changed the rotation so that Matsuzaka will pitch tonight instead of Lester. I have to say that Daisuke Matsuzaka’s chances of winning 20 games this season are very good. Rick Sutcliffe predicted 20 wins last week on ESPN.com and you have to favor Matsuzaka’s chances at this point.

For the majority of the season, this team will not be the same team offensively that you saw last night and in Tampa this weekend. They are going to hit and the staff will get the run support to win games. Big Papi is not a sub .200 hitter. Mike Lowell’s return should give the offense an additional boost.

What the offense needs to do is score early and deliver in the important situations. Last week there was a situation where they had a man on third with one out and couldn’t score the run. Whoever was up hit ball to the right side but didn’t elevate. With the infield in, you need to hit it hard and elevate to advance the runner. With the fielders playing in so close in that situation you can’t hit it to the pitchers mound, you need to get past the infield dirt.

What happened with the Red Sox offense? This weekend, the Red Sox just got outplayed. If you look at history between these two teams over the past 3 years - and even dating further back to when Pedro was here. The Rays always play us tough. They get good pitching and, though they are a small market time and lack the big name stars featured in the lineup of their divisional rivals, the Rays get up to play high priced teams.

Like Jerry Remy said: at the first game of the series, there were only 3000 fans but Sunday night had a full house.

The Toronto team coming in tonight looks to be different than the team we played at the beginning of April. Daisuke comes back to take on their ace, and if we can get a couple of runs early, I like our chances.

Other Sports:
I watched Adam Scott win on Sunday, but my wife has been following the NBA (she’s a big fan) and we are just waiting for the Celtics to take care of this. Just like in any sport the further you advance, the tougher it gets.

The young players on the Hawks were very physical last night and I have noticed the call for teams to be more physical, not just in basketball, but in all sports. You don’t want to give in to the other team, but at the same time antagonizing the other team isn’t a part of sports. All of the face making and chest pounding is not within the spirit of competition; it sets a bad example for the high school and college students who participate in organized athletics. If the fans want to see yelling, scowling, and physical play, they should be watching the WWE.

Baltimore and Toronto have both come back to earth over the past 10 days. I haven’t seen much of Baltimore but the Red Sox traditionally more or less break even with the O’s over the season series. But over the past few years, and even dating back to the late 80’s and early 90’s, the Boston Red Sox have a lot trouble with Toronto.

Baltimore has a lot of pressure and they are a fairly inexperienced team, especially the starting pitchers. They no longer have Erik Bedard to anchor the rotation and have a tough schedule. They’re in a hitters ballpark and have to play slugging divisional foes in Toronto, Boston, and New York, and have tough match ups against the White Sox (this weekend), Anaheim (early next month), and Detroit who could be a much different team by the time they visit Camden Yards after the all-star break.

Without a doubt, Toronto is a bigger threat at this point and, though they were swept by Oakland last week, I wouldn’t write them off at any point this season. For the first time this decade they have some depth in the pitching staff and a lineup that can cause problems.

After watching this team play this spring, as well as the two games in Japan, I think this year’s Red Sox team will perform very similarly to the Red Sox of 2007. What is important is to monitor the potential improvements other AL teams have made this offseason. Detroit has added more power to their lineup, the Yankees have some young talent and a new manager, and the Toronto Blue Jays are talented and always play Boston tough. I expect the opposition as a whole to play Boston tough this year simply based on the success of last year. After winning the World Series the opposition will bring it up a notch.

Tito is a smart manager and knows that he essentially has the same team.  He worked hard this spring to make the 2008 Red Sox fundamentally stronger than last year’s team by looking at the 2007 team for places to improve.

Last year the Red Sox waited until latter part of games to score runs which led to a lot of come from behind games.  This year’s team now knows they need to score early and often as the rest of the league will be bringing their best to try to knock off the champs.

I won’t venture as far as to make a prediction, but I will say that it isn’t necessarily important for the Red Sox to win the division as winning the division does not ensure a trip to the World Series.  The important part is just reaching the playoffs; after that anything can happen.