THE BRONZE ZOO IS BURNING

So where do we start? The Red Sox head into the Bronx like a well balanced planet on a perfect elliptical orbit. They haven't passed this close to Planet Yankee since June 3rd. They have won 4 in a row for the first time in exactly 1 month. New York, meanwhile, is stumbling badly on the road, losing 2 of 3 in Anaheim and 2 of 3 so far to the Tigers. They have been running on high octane for 3 weeks to get back into it and while they cut the lead to 4 twice in the past 8 days, they seem spent when on the road and find themselves almost needing a sweep this week just to get back close.

The Sox, on the other hand, go into New York Tuesday night with a 7.5 game lead and having Monday off. New York gets to stay in Detroit on Monday night and play a desperate, fighting Tiger team one more time. They will either be 7 or 8 out by the time they take the field for the first of 3 against the Sox top three pitchers, if you consider Schilling to be a member of that genre.

Boston is coming off a 4 game sweep in Chicago where they out-scored the White Sox 46-7 and never had to ask Jonathan Papplebon to lift a ball until the 9th on Sunday just to blow the dust off. They have rotated nicely their new acquisitions of Bobby Kielty and Kevin Cash. Kielty will now platoon, thank you Lord, with JD Useless and is a tremendous fit. He contributed nicely over the weekend with the bat and he can play either corner in the outfield. Cash is fitting in seamlessly as Tim Wakefield's personal catcher while Doug Mirabelli is out. Terry Francona has done a masterful job of resting his starting components through this trip as well.

The pitching has been incredible and the move to send a struggling Jon Lester down for a start and give Julian (Ironman) Tavarez the ball was rewarded yesterday as Tavarez threw 2 hit ball against the imploding White Sox. The bullpen hasn't been taxed because of the offensive explosion and while they scored 14 runs on Saturday, they did not go deep once. No matter who it seems comes in the 6th thru 8th anyway, be it Manny Delcarmen, Eric Gagne, Oki-Doki, Kyle Snyder or Mike Timlin, the game is usually well in hand for a well maintained Papplebon to close. (It's amazing to think that Papplebon only makes 425K, isn't it?) All this is coming together nicely and there is no real outstanding reason why that is so, which bodes well for October baseball here in Boston.

So as the leaves show signs of Falling into September and the parenting tourists in town thin out to start their school years, we here in the Nation beam with the expected joy of post season play. Years past were so many that we were skeptics and wary of a collapse but this year is different with a team so built for the long haul and with so few injuries that sent them crashing last year. A franchise which no longer needs to answer to a curse or a Dent.

Nope. This team is better than the 2004 Championship team in a lot of ways. The leading winner (tied) on the pitching staff is TIM WAKEFIELD with 16. Huh? A team with Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz on the roster had a guy named Lowell lead the team in home runs almost the entire first half. They have a right fielder making 15 mil who can't hit a fly with a cannon and leads the world in emotions with zero, yet they still win. Julio Lugo and Dustin Pedroia couldn't hit off a tee through May and now Pedroia is in the Rookie of the Year race and Lugo is one of the best clutch hitters on the team. The bench, comprised of starters for a lot of teams has Alex Cora and Eric Hinske coming up big. The addition of Kielty hasn't hurt either and I already mentioned how Cash has spelled Mirabelli.

So tomorrow night we play 3 games in the Bronx. The very worst that could happen is that the Sox come home still 4 games up. Just like they were a week ago, meaning the Yankees gained no ground what-so-ever. We even get to face Roger Fat Ass Clemens on Wednesday night. He will be opposed by his childhood idol Josh Beckett.

The schedule has the Sox playing at home most of the way from here on in against Tampa, Toronto and Baltimore as well as a send off party for the Yankees in the middle of September. By estimation, you get a clinch somewhere in Toronto or Tampa Bay September 17 thru the 23rd and a nice week home against Oakland and Minny to align your arms to open with either the Mariners (Yankees miss out) or the Central winner (Yankees take wild card) at Fenway October 3rd or 4th (And the only game that can collide with the New England Patriots, barring rainout, is Game 4 of the World Series.)

Three weeks ago in this space it was written that we should "brace for the race". Not needed as the past week has proven our miscalculation and paranoia false. With a day to day resiliency, this Red Sox team molds itself to the same idea and philosophy that the 0-3 2004 ALCS Sox had: Just win today. Period. But for today, they rest.