The Long View

After watching a Red Sox rally in the ninth inning last night fall just short as they fell 1 1/2 games behind the first place Tampa Bay Rays, I couldn’t help feeling that last night’s game was just the beginning of what could be a make or break stretch of games.
It’s not hyperbole to argue that the Red Sox have hit the most critical point in their 2008 schedule, a seven game stretch that could put a stamp on the first half of the season or erase alot of built up good will. I don’t think I need to remind anyone what lies ahead, but for those who may have lost track of the schedule, the Red Sox have now entered a division shaping three game set at Tampa Bay followed by four games in New York.
Of course I was one that was holding out hope that they could have found a way to steal last night’s game out from under the Rays, reclaiming their spot at the top of the heap that is the American League East, then follow that stomach punch with a knockout combination in the next two games leaving Tampa Bay for New York with a 2 1/2 game lead.
But now the tenor of my thoughts have gravitated in a different direction with the prospect of a series loss, and God forbid sweep, looming over the horizon.
Should the Red Sox get swept in Tampa Bay, they could find themselves closer to the Yankees in third place than the Rays in first carrying the burden of that fact into the teeth of long standing arch enemy in the Bronx.
And while reality is more likely somewhere in the middle – in a series of this magnitude, the split is near inevitable – the nature of the opponent that follows only exacerbates the task that lays before the Red Sox.
Truth be told, the Rays are more likely to approach this series as a playoff-caliber series. It is without a doubt the most important three game series in the history of their franchise.
The Red Sox, having been in the trenches with New York season after season, as well as actual playoff series of their own, will take this series as they have the season at large; one game at a time. Their ability to view these three games as just what they are, three regular season road games, is both a benefit and a detriment.
The Rays will look like they are living every moment of this series and it will make Red Sox fans skin crawl if it doesn’t appear that their team is hanging it all out there with them. That emotion will likely aid the Rays over these three games. But that emotion won’t be there every night through the dog days of the summer, a let down is inevitable.
In my opinion rallying from that eventual let down is the hardest thing for a baseball team to do. If series after series between the Red Sox and Yankees have taught me anything, it is that the let down as the Royals come to town causes you to drop your guard and in that momentary lapse, all that hard work of earned games on the opponent can disappear in the blink of an eye.
Over the long haul of the season, that emotional stability from game to game, no matter how intense any single game or series is, is a benefit. You can’t let series in June and July dictate your season.
Even with a sweep, 3 1/2 games isn’t an insurmountable obstacle. Even if the Red Sox lose five out of the next seven games, a six game homestand awaits heading into the All Star break. It isn’t likely they would be any more than 5 1/2 games back of the division leaders heading into the break in even the worst case scenario.
Yes, the momentum lost in the two head to head series within the division would be painful should the worst case rear it’s ugly head, but it won’t deter this team from it’s overall goal; a goal not reachable until the slate of games reaches 162 and beyond, not one that can be attained after 90.
No matter what the outcome of the next two games and the trip into NY, this team will compete for a playoff season as long as pitches are thrown this season.
As fans it is our duty to live and die with every pitch. That emotional reaction is one of the things that makes being a fan feel like more than “just being a fan”. Our job is the analyze every move, pontificate every potential trade opportunity, and approach and then back off the ledge with every swing of momentum.
Sometimes however, stretches of season will challenge that duty and cause fans to need to do something that doesn’t come naturally to us; be patient and take the long view.
Now I am not predicting a sweep in Tampa Bay, nor do I think doom and gloom are on our doorstep, but should they “come into our neighborhood” just remember that a three, nor seven game stretch does not make or break a season no matter how much it may feel like it could.