This may prove to be imprudent but just like that the Red Sox have retaken the lead in the AL East. The Rays have hit a bit of a rough patch, the Yankees offense tends to show up every once in a while but more often than not gets left at the hotel, Baltimore is Baltimore, and Toronto continues to somehow squander the talent they have up there. You can't count the Yankees out and Tampa isn't going to go quietly but it's nice to be on top.
Tampa Bay doesn't look good at the moment-dropping seven games in a row is not a good thing, but they'd won seven games in a row previous to the losing streak so it all evens out. Hinske's cooled off some, which-although I loved Smiley McGee-seemed inevitable. Haverhill hasn't been the same since Masterson broke his finger. Carl Crawford has hit a dry spell. But Dioner Navarro and Cliff Floyd (when he gets playing time) have both been solid. Longoria has been tearing it up-it'll be interesting to see if he can keep it up for the second half. Their starting pitching should be a real concern going into the second half of the year. They're such a young staff-Garza has already surpassed the number of innings he'd previously thrown in a season and Sonnastine is fast approaching a place he's never been before-you just can't tell what's going to happen to them. Edwin Jackson has either turned a massive corner or is in for an atrocious second half. James Shields looks to be the rock of the organization at the moment-you know what to expect from him because (so far) he's having a perfectly average year. The Polish Prince (Kazmir sounds like a Polish name and he looks Polish, so I'm going to go with it) has suddenly run into trouble. You've got to think that when a strike-out guy (who's not the physical prototype of a starting pitcher and has had issues with injuries in the past) starts walking guys, running the count full, and has trouble getting through five innings, something might be wrong. That said, they've got themselves a juicy farm system down there in North Carolina. So they very well could be alright if things get worse or go wrong.
The Yankees have gotten off to a rough start this year. Their highly touted pitching prospects (Hughes and Kennedy) did not do very well in the bigs. They have been absolutely riddled with injuries. Three-fifths of their opening day starting rotation (Kennedy, Hughes, and Wang) have landed on the DL-Kennedy is probably the first back next month. Their biggest bats (Rodriguez, Matsui, and Posada) have all missed some time. Even the cogs that make the machine run (Damon and Jeter) have had to sit out some games. It's impressive that the motley crew they've pulled together has done as well as they have. And although Cabrera and Cano have had down years, Giambi has flourished in this contract year. Surprisingly, they've gotten solid contributions from Mussina and Pettitte-both of whom looked like they were done after last year. And as much as I had hoped he would go the way of Hughes and Kennedy, Chamberlain seems to be working out for them. If they could get it together, figure out how to string together a couple of hits and then a couple of wins, and get healthy, they could make a run for it. If no one else goes down, they could be back to their usual offensive (hee!) selves. Matsui could be back soon and Damon seems to be on the road to recovery. Hughes and Wang are probably out until September. Posada's shoulder, on the other hand, is unlikely to get better without the surgery and it may well be affecting his swing; he's unlikely to be the Posada of last year or even the year before.
There's still sixty-five games to go and you never can tell which way the wind is going to be blowing on any given day but it's still good to be in first. The state of the Sox tomorrow...
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