The Red Sox can't beat AL East opponents. At least as a general rule. Even with their series victory over the Rays, the Sox sit at 4-5 against Tampa Bay on the year, and that's their best record against a division opponent. Sure, they're not exactly amazing against everyone else, but it's the East that's the real problem.
But hey, they did win that last series, and strange patterns be damned, the Red Sox have Clay Buchholz on the mound tonight, and we don't get many opportunities during the season to go into a game thinking "maybe this won't be so bad." I'd like to do that here, but damn if he hasn't allowed 11 runs in 14 innings against them this season. Maybe today will be different. Maybe it won't. But win or lose, there's only 85 more games left until it's finally over, so we'll certainly have that going for us.
If nothing else...