Red Sox in the Playoffs? It's a Reach

After a glimmer of hope, the Boston Red Sox seem to be sinking again.

Boston had been in a position all season where, if the season had ended that day, they would have been one of the playoff team participants.

It's gone. It's all gone.

The AL East Division Lead? Gone. Seven and a half games back of the Yankees.

The Wild Card Lead? Gone.

(Some had predicted this may happen: See related article http://bleacherreport.com/articles/231968-rest-in-peace-red-sox-nation).

Losing four straight head-to-head games a week ago to the New York Yankees shot the Red Sox way back in their chase for the division crown. It also sent them mortally close to the other playoff wannabe's in the "consolation bracket" Wild Card chase.

The Sox took three out of four games against Detroit in Boston and it appeared they may be able to right the ship. The Tigers are only seven games over .500 on the season and an unimpressive 12 games under .500 on the road.

So was it an important series win for Boston? Absolutely.

Was it impressive? Momentarily, but the ship is sinking again!

Detroit salvaged the last game of their series and Texas promptly stole the Wild Card lead last night after two straight wins.

The Red Sox are now playing catch-up in the standings, just half a game back of the Rangers, but the teams are clearly headed in different directions.

Losing two out of three games to the team chasing you will do that to you. After that glimmer of hope in the first three games against Detroit, Boston came back down to earth and has now lost three of their last four games.

Keep bailing, the water is getting deeper.

Toronto is up next. Boston will continue to take the show on the road north of the border where Toronto is five games over .500. Boston's road record is five games under and they face Roy Halladay in game two.

If Toronto can come up big against Beckett (Tuesday) or Lester (Thursday) they should have a great shot of taking two of the three games.

That would set up a less than exciting series against the Yankees this weekend, which may be up in the standings by 10 games at that point!

Boston has been terrible against teams with winning records recently. Outside of two, three-game series with Toronto, Boston will play 14 games against teams with winning records (Yankees, White Sox, Rays) in their next 20 games.

The team they are chasing, the Rangers, have won 13 of their last 17 against teams with a winning record. The Rangers' offense is incredible and their pitching has really come around. They seem poised to hang on to the Wild Card lead now that they have taken it from Boston with a shot to the hull of the Red Sox' vessel.

Not nearly enough lifeboats. No land in sight.