Series Preview: Oakland @ Sox (Manny's back!)

Oakland As (75-82) at Red Sox (92-64)
2 game series @ Fenway Park
Standings: BOS up 2 in AL East; Oak 17GB in AL West
Season Series: OAK leads 4-2

Probable Pitching Matchups:
GM1 Tue 710 Gaudin (11-12,4.52) vs. Schilling (8-8, 3.97)
GM2 Wed 710 Blanton (14-10) vs. Lester (4-0)

Preview:
In the immortal words of Ice Cube, "once again it's on".

With six games to go in the regular season and a playoff berth already clinched, Boston unfortunately finds itself in an all-too-familiar spot: needing to win to lock up the AL East title and rid themselves of the choker label and achieve the best record in the majors in order to secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

No biggie right?

The good news is that according to the Globe, Manny Ramirez will make his first start tonight after missing 26 games due to a strained oblique muscle, and if healthy he should provide some much-needed firepower to the sputtering, ineffective offense of late.

The flip side of that equation is that Manny's return puts electrifying phenom Jacoby Ellsbury on the bench, but according to Francona as soon as Manny is yanked, which could be early, Ellsbury will be back in the lineup to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting As.

Other good news from Yawkey Way includes the availability of Kevin Youkilis to pinch hit,with Tito hinting at the probability that he will be back in the lineup tomorrow night after missing seven games following being hit by a pitch against Chien Ming Wang 10 days ago.

But the only matter Boston can be concerned with is wrapping up the divison title/securing homefield advantage. The Sox have six very winnable games laid out in front of them to finish the season off on a high note, and anything less than 5-1 will realistically put them in a nail biting situation come the final day of the season on Sunday.

New York helped the Sox cause by losing a makeup matinee against Toronto yesterday in the Bronx to push the margin to an even two games, but with the Stanks taking on Tampa Bay and Baltimore Boston needs to go out and try to win each of these remaining games in order to put the pressure on New York.

Boston has been in this situation before, most recently in 2006 when the Stanks clinched the East at Fenway with a win over the Sox in the last series of the season, then Boston captured the Wild Card with a win the next day.

Thankfully the schedule makes gave us a break this year aand didn't scedule a Boston/New York final series--I don't know if our hearts could take it.

Still it will be a gut-wrenching final week thanks to Boston gagging a 14 1/2 game lead down to a deuce, but these are our Sox and we all know they NEVER do anything the easy way.

They just need to go out and smash these two opponents in the mouth, win five of six from these bottom dwelling teams, and take possession of what has been rightfully theirs this whole season:

their first division title in 11 years

Go Sox!