The mighty Boston Red Sox tend to play up or down to the level of their competitors, generally playing well against teams with winning records and looking like shit against teams with losing records. With yesterday's 5-4 win over the Giants, the Red Sox completed their first sweep of a sub-.500 team since the Mets back on July 12 and their first sweep against any team since the White Sox on August 6. 

Yesterday, the Sox came back from a three-run deficit to San Francisco with a second-inning solo home run by Nick Sogard, his second of the season, and a pair of singles by Rafaella and doubles by Wong and Gasper in the third and fourth. After that it was a pitching duel with the Giant's "Tugboat" Wilkinson getting knocked out of the game in the fourth with four runs, seven hits, only two K's, and a 6.35 ERA. Tugboats apparently don't like the Dirty Water. Big Jake Bennett also gave up four runs and seven hits but over seven innings and with six K's. Relievers Guerrero and Chapman both went 1-2-3 in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively. 

Don't look now, but at 7-3 over their last 10 games, the Red Sox (71-59) are currently the hottest team in the American League. Tampa Bay and New York both won their games yesterday, so Boston is still six games back from first place and three back from the second-place Yankees. As I've said here over and over again, Boston's path to the World Series doesn't go through the division championship but through the Wild Card, where they have a comfortable 6½-game cushion. However, catching up to the Yankees would give them the home field in the Wild Card games, but considering that they're only two games over .500 at home but ten games above on the road, that might be a mixed blessing. When it's all said and done, however, I'd rather play a best-of-three series against New York in Fenway than in Yankee Stadium.

We'll see how well we fare (and most likely who will win the Wild Card chase) in Yankee Stadium this weekend, but first there's a three-game road series in Miami (67-64) starting tonight. Ranger Suárez (5-3, 3.41) starts tonight against the Marlins' Sandy Alcantara (13-8, 3.46). Suárez is a career 6-2 in Marlins Park, and in his last game in Miami, pitching for the Phillies, he dominated the Marlins, striking out eight while giving up only one run over seven innings in a 4-2 Philly win. 

Alcantara has a 1-1 record against the Sox in three starts. Last year (August 15), he kept Boston to one run over six innings with seven K's, although the Sox eventually won the game, 2-1 with a Trevor Story walk-off RBI single.

Let's squish the fish with a sweep of the Marlins, and then march out of Yankee Stadium on Sunday in first place in the Wild Card standings.