Red Sox Fans Need to Take a Deep Breath. This Season Isn't over

"That's It."

"There goes the season."

"May as well hand the Yanks the division now."

Wow, Red Sox fans. Maybe we should just push a fast forward button to Truck Day in February of 2012? Monday was not a good day in Red Sox Nation. The Red Sox having dropped four of six at home to both the Yankees and Rangers. Then  in Toronto Josh Beckett was hoping to rebound with a win from their ace.

Instead, Sox fans watched in horror as Beckett limped off the field with an unknown (at the time) ankle ailment in the fourth inning. Adding to the day's woes, the Red Sox lost in 11 innings 1-0 on a Brett Lawrie walk-off home run. 

For a long-time Sox fans who in spite of an enormously successful past decade suffer from a fatalistic fascination with collapse, Monday's events seemed to be a bit more than they could handle. Sox fans were speculating that not only would the division be lost but the wildcard is now in jeopardy, as well. 

If Beckett were to be lost for the remainder of the season it would be a major blow to a Sox team already suffering from the loss of Clay Buchholz and now missing Erik Bedard for a brief (hopefully) stint as well. 48 hours have passed and it appears that Josh Beckett will miss one and maybe two starts. 

If two missed starts by one pitcher is going to cost you your season then your season never had much hope in the first place.

Let's all be realistic here. There is no rational reason to think any American League Team will beat Philadelphia should they make the World Series. If you'd like to count CJ Wilson as an "ace" than the four current American League playoff teams have one more "ace" combined as Philadelphia has in their rotation. C.C. Sabathia, Justin Verlander, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and Wilson make five.

Philadelphia counters with Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt. No American League fan base should be all that confident of a World Series Ring this season. 

Even with that being the case Red Sox fans shouldn't be jumping off any ledges, either. Okay, the Red Sox aren't playing that well, right now. So What? There's still over three weeks of baseball left. The Red Sox started the season 2-10. By late May the team was playing baseball as well as almost any team in the league. All teams—even 100 win teams can have a few bad weeks. It's just a product of a lengthy 162 game season .

Is there a rational reason to think that the Red Sox will continue to lose two out of every three for the next three weeks? Will Ellsbury, Pedroia, Gonzalez and Ortiz all stop hitting? Will Bard and Papelbon lose velocity on their fastballs? Will Jon Lester forget how to pitch as well? That ludicrous question was answered last night with a resounding "no" as Lester was given 13 more runs than needed in a 14-0 shutout of Toronto.

Not sure if Sox fans have noticed but the Red Sox might have a pretty good young catcher for the next few years in Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Josh Reddick may be the right fielder of the future as well. Jon Lester is one of the best young lefties in baseball. Daniel Bard seems to be on the path to becoming dominant in whatever role he eventually ends up in. Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury aren't going anywhere, anytime soon, either and neither is Adrian Gonzalez.

Want some more good news? Well according to Baseball America http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/ask-ba/2011/2612245.html, the Red Sox had the third best draft of any Major League Team in 2011. The two teams ranked ahead of them are the Nationals and Pirates, which means the Sox had the best draft in the AL. Not only is the future not all that bad for the remainder of this season, it's pretty bright down the road as well. 

Deep breaths Red Sox fans.

I admit that things aren't ideal right now—but it's early September, not early October. Those Rays that everyone seems worried about right now got shutout by the Rangers last night. The Red Sox have an eight game wild card lead right now and are standing only 2.5 games out of first place.

Only 2.5 games after a bad week for the Sox and with the Yanks playing great baseball right now as well. 2.5 games is a weekend everyone. This season still has three weeks left in it. Let's all relax for a few minutes guys. It could be worse—we could be Colts fans.