The Skanks are only 6.5 back BUT their pitching is horrible.
Their bats will pick up again and win them some games but their starters are awful.
I will be happy when they are dead and buried at about 15 games back in August.
Hughes and Kennedy are simply not ready for the big time. Neither has much experience and with all of the injuries that Hughes has dealt with he’s lost almost a full season of pitching development time.
Wong and the Schnozz are fine in a rotation but banking on Mussina, Igawa and whoever else they can throw out there is not the answer. Chamberlain can’t just step into the rotation either since you have to give him time to build up endurance to go 6-7 innings and then there’s the other side to it that you can’t let him throw more than 160-170 innings in a year anyway given his age.
As much as I want the Sox to win I would not be upset if Tampa wins. It will make Tank’s head explode!