September is the time when Red Sox starting pitchers have started taking over ballgames in recent years.
It was true in 2004 when the trio of Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe combined to get Boston on track for a championship. It rang true again in 2007 with gunslinger Josh Beckett and Schilling again -- this time three years older and getting by more on guts and guile than on 97 mph velocity -- and it's expected to hold true this autumn when the regular season transforms to playoff baseball. Magic numbers and playoff position are beginning to dominate any relevant baseball discussions, and this season's rotation may be Boston's best during the recent run of postseason success.
Daisuke Matsuzaka leads the Boston staff with 16 wins and a 2.97 ERA over his adventurous 151 2/3 innings, and he will be Boston's No. 3 starter during the playoffs. Josh Beckett has had brilliant moments along with some stunning thuds during an inconsistent third season with the Sox. Beckett's campaign included a recent bout with right elbow inflammation, but the 28-year-old has been dominant since coming off the 15-day disabled list Sept. 5.
Beckett obviously remains the key and will be paramount to any of Boston's postseason hopes, but Jon Lester could also be a real difference-maker.
The young southpaw, who won his 15th game of the season behind eight innings of one-run ball Sunday afternoon, has emerged as the No. 2 starter on a standout staff. As it is, the entire Sox starting staff is 11-3 with a 3.01 ERA over the last 19 games with five scoreless starts of at least five innings during that span.
Put the aforementioned trio together in a short playoff series or having two of the three toeing the rubber down the stretch in the regular season -- as Matsuzaka and Beckett will do in a key series at Tampa Bay starting Monday night -- and the confidence rises to sky-high levels in the Sox clubhouse.
"You combine (Lester) going into the postseason with Josh and Dice-K, and that's a pretty good group that we could have going for us," third baseman Mike Lowell said. "Especially when a (playoff) series is a lot shorter than the course of a whole season."
While playoff roles still haven't been settled or even clinched at this point, the Sox should again find themselves in a pretty sweet spot when October baseball begins. It's the very same place they've been several times over the past five years.
RED SOX 4, BLUE JAYS 3: OF Coco Crisp collected a pair of two-out RBI singles, and OF Jacoby Ellsbury parlayed a single and stolen base into a manufactured run in a workmanlike offensive effort from the Sox. LHP Jon Lester earned his 15th win of the season by tossing eight innings of one-run ball, and RHP Jonathan Papelbon racked up his career-best 38th save of the season despite coughing up two runs.
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