Two weeks ago, the Red Sox stood at a crossroads as they ventured out on the road. With 11 of their next 13 games away from Fenway Park and all against the iron of both leagues, it wasn’t outlandish to suggest the season could be decided on the basis of the fortnight.
Either the Red Sox would gobble up much-needed victories, or risk being swallowed whole by the Rays and Yankees.
And after an early stumble, the Sox made their stand. Entering Wednesday’s series finale against the division-leading Rays, the Red Sox were poised to sweep the division leaders at Tropicana Field and end their grueling stretch with five straight victories — a season high — and an impressive 9-4 record, good enough to vault the Sox back into the thick of the race.
The Red Sox did it as they expected they would out of spring training, stringing together quality start after quality start, even without meaningful contributions from their two highest-priced arms, Josh Beckett and John Lackey.
Instead, it was Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz and the surprising contributions of Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield — combining for a 4-0 record and an 0.32 ERA over the past four games — that allowed the Sox to overcome a disastrous loss to the Yankees on May 17 and climb back into contention for the wild card.
