Statement Series for Red Sox in Texas

If you'd posited four months ago that this weekend's three-game series between the Red Sox and the Texas Rangers would have drastic implications for the American League pennant race, your prediction would have fallen on deaf ears. Most would have thought you were crazy.

And yet here we are. What were the odds?

The Red Sox have spent the last four days talking their fanbase off the Tobin Bridge. After an unbelievable string of six consecutive road losses last week, the Red Sox returned home and reminded New England that, at the very least, they can still win within the friendly confines of Fenway Park. The Sox were one Justin Verlander gem away from a sweep of a playoff-bound Detroit team, and now, once again, another wild card in Boston is looking like a very strong possibility.

Unless something goes wrong this weekend.

In the other corner, there are the Rangers. You're looking at a Texas team that's won five of its last seven games and now, led by Kevin Millwood and a bunch of kids you've never heard of, sits just half a game back of the Sox in the AL wild card race. And with the AL East picture starting to look grim, this is all the Red Sox have.

Not that there's any shame in that. The Red Sox didn't win the AL East in 2004, either, and we all know how that turned out. All the Sox need to do between now and October is find a way into the playoffs. Any way. Once they're there, they can worry about toppling the Yankees. Lord knows they've done it before.

But to get to October, the Red Sox will have to figure out how to win series like this. They can beat up on division doormats all they want, but August is challenging this team — beating playoff contenders is a whole different test.

Especially on the road. The Red Sox enter this series 27-31 on the road this season — and nobody even makes it to October, much less wins anything, without winning some away games. Playing sub-.500 ball isn't going to cut it.

The Red Sox' pitching, to be fair, has been shaky away from Fenway. The Sox' staff has allowed 4.72 runs per game on the road versus 4.09 at home. But the starting lineup has struggled even worse, with a disparity of more than a full run (4.59 runs to 5.76) away from Boston.

What's wrong? Everything. The Red Sox, one of the best-hitting teams in the game, watch their bats turn to mush when they leave the Fens. Their road slugging percentage of .404 would rank them among the worst-hitting teams in the American League.

J.D. Drew is hitting just .232 on the road. Jason Varitek sits at a dismal .191; he has four homers. Nick Green is hitting .205/.286/.299 for an OPS of .585 — there are some kids up in Peabody who could do better than that.

This has to stop. Nobody wins championships without winning consistently, no matter where they play. Nobody can win them all, but the best teams can at least perform well enough on the road have a chance in October.

This weekend's series is a big one. The Rangers haven't made the postseason in 10 years, and they haven't won a single game in October in 13. They want that playoff spot, and they want it bad. They're going to come out hard in this series — because if they don't, it's going to be another long (though not cold) winter in Arlington.

You never want to call an August series a do-or-die situation. But every win counts when you're in a pennant race, and every win counts double when you're playing the team that's chasing you.

But if the Rangers get the best of the Red Sox this weekend, they won't be the chasers anymore. They'll be the chased.

The Sox need to figure some things out this weekend. They need to win where it's not easy to win — anywhere but Fenway. And they need to prove to these upstart Rangers that they're still the team to beat.

That can surely be done. But knowing these Red Sox, it won't come easy.

We're about to find out what these Sox are made of.