(Photo via Boston.com)

It’s slightly after 1 A.M. here on the east coast, and I am struggling to find the right words to put into this post. Under normal circumstances, I would find myself inclined to tear into this team after what I was just forced to witness this past weekend, but I won’t. I can’t tell you how long this string is that I have for them, but my patience is at an all time high. After all they have been through, I just can’t fault the Red Sox for the way they have played. It’s not because I don’t want to either. Every night when I see them make fourteen errors or walk the number nine hitter or strike out on a pitch right down the middle of the plate I die a little inside. I have cursed at the television more this season than the last three NBA playoffs combined. I am as frustrated as anyone. But halfway through writing a post about how this team sucks and they should blow it up and try again next season I find myself holding down on the backspace button. I just don’t have it in me.

You all know as much as I do what this team has had to go through so there is no point in rattling off the list of injuries and adversity that they have overcome to this point. But it is important to point out that they are currently only 3.5 games out of the wild card spot. That’s nothing. Forget about the Yankees for a moment. Let’s just all agree that they are going to go on and win the AL East. I’m fine with that, we won the World Series as wild cards in 2004 and we can do it again. All you have to do is make it to the playoffs and anything goes. So as long as we are still in the wild card chase I will forever hold out hope.

My general rule of thumb is that a team can overcome a deficit that is as large as there are weeks remaining in the schedule. For example, if there are five weeks remaining, and the Sox are five games back, there is still a chance. If there are only four weeks left and they are five games back than it may be time to give up hope. So you can see now why despite how terrible they have played the last two weeks I still remain pretty chipper overall. I didn’t count, but I think there is technically 12-13 weeks left in the regular season. Obviously you don’t want to see yourself come anywhere near that far behind, but the point remains that this race is far from over.

That being said, the Red Sox are about to embark on what could be a make or break type of road trip; a ten day ten game swing on the west coast against Oakland, Seattle, and the Angels. A swing that includes no travel days and three day games after a night game. Not the best news for a team who has struggled historically on the west coast. Luckily, Oakland and Seattle aren’t exactly the toughest opponents. This trip will also see the return of Clay Buchholz and Josh Beckett to the starting rotation and more importantly Tim Wakefield to the bullpen. If nothing else, this should provide a morale boost to members in the club house and a light at then end of the tunnel of all these injuries. This week it’s Clay and Beck, shortly after we will see V-Mart back in action, a couple weeks later Pedey should take the field, and eventually, Jacoby himself will might grace us with his presence. While it would be nice to see them go 7-3 over the ten games, the most important thing is that they don’t do something crazy and lose 7 of 10 because at the same time the Rays have cupcake series’ against the Orioles and Indians. Just keep within striking distance and get ready for the final push as or DL starts to become less and less crowded.

If things go poorly over the next ten days than maybe you will see me singing a different tune. But the fact of the matter remains that we have yet to see the 2010 Red Sox all healthy and playing at the same time. If they still suck when that happens then so be it, but I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of people jumping back on this bandwagon over the next four weeks.