Will The Red Sox's Series Against The Yankees Decide Boston's Fate?

It all comes down to this.

Or maybe not.

The Red Sox are in New York Monday night to start a quick two game series with the Yankees. Sitting at .500 on the season (19-19), the Red Sox need as many wins as they can get at this point in the season. But if the Red Sox split or get swept in the Bronx, do we need to write off Boston?

Ironically enough, the best team to look at to compare to the Red Sox is the Yankees -- from 2009. The Yankees were 20-17 on May 19, 2009, just 1.5 games better than the Red Sox sit right now. And, as we all know, the Yankees went on to win the World Series last year. I think you all remember that.

Here's what propelled the Yankees to the World Series trophy: six winning streaks that combined for 45 wins. This is exactly what the Red Sox lacked last season and they haven't been able to string together anything this year. The Sox's best streak was a four-game winning clip from May 3-May 6.

If the Sox get swept, they sit at 19-21 with a four-game losing streak. It's bad, but it's not horrible. It's a hole, but it's not impossible to come out of. Even if the Red Sox get hit hard, we need to remember it's just two games -- and it's still just May.

On the flipside, sweeping the Yankees, even in a two-game set, would be a nice boost for this club. For the obvious reasons, yes, but also because of who's starting -- Daisuke Matsuzaka and Josh Beckett. Dice-K is coming off his best start of the season and Beckett is starting after missing a few days because of a "tweaked back." (I still don't buy that fully.) If these two pitchers can put together great starts and earn wins for the Sox, there's some hope to build off.

A sweep of the Yankees would be great. A split would be OK. Getting swept would be a hard hit, but it's not impossible to recover from it.

We're in May, folks, and as bad as all of this seems, we need to remember: it's still possible to turn this season around.