Lucky 13

After the huge come-from-behind win by the home town team tonight, the magic number has dropped to 13. With the second-place Yankees heading to New England this weekend, the Sox have a golden opportunity to cinch their first AL East crown in over a decade.

Here are the simple numbers regarding this weekend's three-game set:

If the Sox win 0: Magic number remains 13 with 13 to play
If the Sox win 1: Magic number becomes 11 with 13 to play
If the Sox win 2: Magic number becomes 9 with 13 to play
If the Sox win 3: Magic number becomes 7 with 13 to play

As of this writing, the Wednesday and Thursday night games are included in the "13 to play;" in a perfect world, the Sox would win their game tomorrow night and the Yanks would lose twice over the next two days, which would take three more off the magic number.

In other words: The end is near, but don't get comfortable.

Before last night's game, the pundits all believed the East was a lock; a seven-run deficit later and many believed this team would probably get swept in the first round even if they're lucky enough to make the playoffs at all. Red Sox Nation has been burned before and is therefore more prone to wild bouts of skepticism, but a quick glance at the standings show that this team is the only franchise with a winning percentage over .600.

I know they are frustrating to watch. I know we have many question marks staring us in the face. I know we have some free agents that have underperformed and some marquee stars who are letting us down.

But in the end, this team wins games. I could parade some stats around, but those are easily dismissed when the going gets rough, so I'll try and keep this as simple as possible.

88 wins, 58 losses, 5 game lead, 16 games to play.

Now let's see if they can close one door.