1 Ailing Champion, 7 Eager Challengers

A Red Sox Repeat, or Year of the Upstart?

Once, it was easy to ascertain the identity of the Boston Red Sox. They were the slightly smaller, peppier, more endearing cousin of their gargantuan division rivals, the New York Yankees. But then the Red Sox, titleless for 85 cold New England winters, won two World Series in a four-year span, and now, as they prepare to defend the second of those titles in the 2008 postseason, we can only puzzle over the Red Sox' identity crisis. We don't even know who they are anymore.

The Red Sox, who open the playoffs today in Anaheim, Calif., against the Los Angeles Angels, are no longer the best team in their league, or even their division, as the upstart Tampa Bay Rays -- an aggregate 327 games below .500 in 10 years of existence prior to this season -- knocked them from their perch atop the American League East.

They no longer carry the mantle of the nation's favorite cursed franchise, as that now belongs to the Chicago Cubs, who this year celebrated the centennial anniversary of their last World Series title by storming to the National League's best record.

With the old Red Sox, you could always count on at least one comedic interlude and one heroic blast per postseason series from the slugging left fielder, Manny Ramírez, but even he is gone now and can be spotted this October wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform, following a cathartic divorce from the Red Sox two months ago.

What remains of the Red Sox? At full health, they may still be the best built-for-the-postseason team in baseball, with their rotation front-loaded with dominant, shut-down starters, and their lineup full of high-on-base-percentage hitters who grind out at-bats and wear down opposing starters.

But the Red Sox clearly are not at full health.

Ace Josh Beckett, the single-most dominant figure in last October's championship run (4-0, 1.20 ERA in four starts), has been pushed back to Game 3 of the division series by a strained oblique muscle, and -- given the history of pitchers with that specific injury, which often takes several weeks to heal -- it is no given he will pitch at all against the Angels.

The Red Sox' rotation now has its own identity crisis, although it could work to their advantage, with left-hander Jon Lester -- a 24-year-old flamethrower whose career winning percentage of .771 (27-8) is the highest of any pitcher since 1900 with at least 50 career starts, and who is as capable of nine-inning dominance as anyone in the game -- assuming the role of Beckett, and with Beckett himself in the role of Curt Schilling, the veteran gunslinger who brushes off whatever physical ailment is plaguing him and takes to the mound, bloody sock and all, to save the day. (Daisuke Matsuzaka returns, as himself, in Game 2.)

"There's no getting around what Beckett has done in postseason play -- not only for us but with the Marlins" in 2003, Red Sox Manager Terry Francona told reporters. "[But] I think we're all looking to Jon Lester making [it] his time. . . . We love what Beckett can do, and we respect what Beckett can do. We're starting to get that feeling about Lester."

Asked yesterday about Beckett's influence on him, Lester said: "He's a guy who, when I got called up, I wanted to model myself after. He's always in the weight room, busting his butt. There's a reason he pitches 220 innings every year. I try to follow his lead."

The Red Sox' lineup, too, is hurting, with at least two important members, third baseman Mike Lowell (hip) and right fielder J.D. Drew (back), nursing injuries that could limit their playing time. Last year, Drew had perhaps the single-most crucial hit during the Red Sox' title run, a grand slam in Game 6 of the AL Championship Series, and Lowell was the most valuable player of the World Series.

With the Red Sox ailing, the eight-team playoff field appears wide open. The 100-win Angels, on paper, are the best of the eight, with a rotation headed by John Lackey, Ervin Santana and West Springfield High product Joe Saunders, and a lineup fortified at the trade deadline by the addition of Mark Teixeira. However, their .330 team on-base percentage, 11th in the AL, underscores the fact they do not have the sort of patient, pitcher-taxing lineup that tends to succeed in October.

The Cubs, meantime, are the class of the NL, with a rotation so deep that their No. 4 starter, Ted Lilly, was a 17-game winner, and a lineup featuring five hitters with 20 or more homers this season. Their chief weakness is that the lineup, with right fielder Kosuke Fukudome in a mysterious slump and relegated to the bench, is exceedingly right-handed and, thus, susceptible to right-handed power pitchers.

A Cubs-Red Sox World Series would be a television executive's dream -- or at the very least a consolation prize following the twin disappointments of seeing both New York teams miss the playoffs -- featuring two big-market teams with national followings and compelling story lines.

And perhaps therein lies a clue to the Red Sox' new identity. With the Yankees out of the postseason picture for the first time in 15 years, the Red Sox, in some ways, are the new Yankees -- with a mammoth payroll ($133 million this season), a strong gravitational pull on the national media and a fan base that has come to view championships as more of a birthright than a gift to be cherished and exalted.

These are the Red Sox of 2008. The next few weeks will tell whether this version is as good as the old one.