E-Mail This Article to a Friend Turning Japanese: Analyzing the Sox’ seven-game West Coast swing BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

Seven games down, 17 contests to go during the crucial stretch of games that will more than likely determine the Red Sox’ post-season hopes. In the weeklong West Coast swing just completed, Boston managed to go 3-4, which is not that great, but not so bad considering the level of competition and the fact that the Sox dropped the first two games of that seven-game stretch, causing panic in the streets back home. When the Yankees had a similar six-game trip back in May, they took two of three in Seattle before dropping two out of three in Oakland. Fortunately for Boston, the Sox had just one four-game visit to Oakland, while the Pinstripers for some reason got stuck with two three-game road trips (they also lost two of three at Network Associates Coliseum earlier this month). New York is done with both of those Western elites, having finished 4-5 against Seattle and 3-6 versus Oakland. Boston, after splitting four games in Oakland and losing the rubber game of the three-game series in Seattle on Sunday, now faces both of those teams at Fenway Park in the upcoming week. Oakland will be in for three, Seattle will visit for four, and then the Sox will be done with those teams until — perhaps — a playoff meeting via the wild-card route or as the AL East title holders.

Home series with Toronto and New York follow, and then Boston moves on to Chicago and New York before the final three weeks unfold. As mentioned in past columns, by the end of that weekend series in the Bronx on September 5–7, we’ll have a fairly good idea of how the AL East will pan out, since both New York and Boston have mirror-image schedules the rest of the way, with the brunt of the opposition being the so-called lower-echelon teams (Detroit, Tampa, Baltimore). Nonetheless, while the Sox have managed to lose five of their last seven to the Orioles, the Yankees just completed a four-game sweep at Camden Yards. If the Red Sox fall short in their quest for a post-season bid, they can point to their subpar road record (32-34) and their head-to-head logs against weaker links Baltimore (5-7), Toronto (9-8), and Texas (5-4). New York, meanwhile, has been a sparking 42-23 overall on the road, and has taken six of eight from the O’s this season (although the two teams will meet each other 11 more times in the next six weeks).

While some Sox fans may be gnashing their teeth over the recent lost opportunities out West, realists should take some satisfaction from the team’s performance. Granted, the offense did not post the gargantuan numbers that they had put up prior to that critical junket, but who does against the likes of the A’s and M’s? In addition, a break here or there and the Sox could have headed home with a .500 record or above, which would have been cause for celebration given the circumstances and the pressure that the team was under by its fandom. Let’s take a look at the seven tilts game by game:

8/11 in Oakland (Martinez vs. Hudson): Tim Hudson pitches lights-out for the A’s, improving to 11-4 in a 4-0 victory. Boston managed just two hits; both of them were dubious, and one could make the point that Hudson had the stuff to no-hit Boston that night, as only five of the 27 outs were recorded by outfielders. Pedro struggled and was lifted after throwing 101 pitches over just five innings, while his counterpart threw a 93-pitch, complete-game gem. To be honest, it wouldn’t have mattered if my seven-year-old were pitching for Boston that day, because Hudson was virtually unhittable, and Boston’s bats were jet-lagged and firmly entrenched in a week-long slump that had seen them score just 15 runs in four Fenway games against the pitching-challenged Orioles. The opener a week ago, it turns out, was the only game of the seven-game trip that Boston had no chance to win.

8/12 in Oakland (Zito vs. Burkett): Throw out Sox starter John Burkett’s miserable first inning (five runs, four hits, a pair of two-run homers), and Boston might have walked away with this one. After all, Burkett retired 13 of the next 14 batters, and the Sox’ bullpen kept the A’s off the board for the rest of the night. After Jason Varitek’s bases-clearing double in the fifth made it 5-3, Boston put two men on with no outs in two of the next three innings. But the A’s relievers and defense were up to the task, particularly in the eighth when closer Keith Foulke retired Boston’s power brokers — Bill Mueller, Nomar Garciaparra, and Manny Ramirez — to escape a no-out, second-and-third situation. The questionable ejection of slugger Trot Nixon in the seventh didn’t help Boston’s late-game cause. Despite the fact that Oakland had scored in just three of the 16 innings they had batted, the A’s had taken the first two games of the series by virtue of their 5-3 triumph.

8/13 in Oakland (Mulder vs. Lowe): For the third-straight game, Boston spotted Oakland a lead, but the bats finally awakened in time to placate the potential ledge-jumpers back East and proceeded to pound 15-game winner Mark Mulder en route to a 7-3 triumph. It was a memorable victory for the Sox, and perhaps marked a turning point in the season. Trailing 2-0 early, Boston loaded the bases in the third with one out, but when the struggling Garciaparra struck out, it was up to Ramirez, who was also lodged in a week-long slump. Manny, however, worked Mulder for a bases-loaded walk, and Kevin Millar followed with a two-run single. Ramirez gave another solid indication that his slump is behind him four innings later when he launched a titanic two-run homer, and Lowe pitched out of a difficult bases-loaded jam in the fifth to emerge victorious for the 12th time this season.

8/14 in Oakland (Lilly vs. Wakefield): Things looked grim as the Sox headed into the ninth trailing, 2-1, against Foulke, the A’s closer, but Ramirez worked a memorable 10-pitch at-bat before clouting a majestic blast into the left-field seats to salvage the tie. In the 10th, more clutch hitting ensued as the Sox plated two runs on a sac fly and an error, and the combined pitching efforts of Wakefield, Scott Williamson, Alan Embree, and BK Kim helped the Sox leave Oakland with a four-game split. Garciaparra went 0-for-5, completing a dismal 3-for-16 series, but Ramirez went 3-for-4 to spark another benchmark victory for the local nine.

8/15 in Seattle (Suppan vs. Moyer): A crucial what-if game. Recently acquired Jeff Suppan — he of the five-game winning streak for the Pirates prior to his trade to Boston — had his third-straight subpar outing as a member of the Sox, putting Boston in an early 3-0 hole before the Sox rallied for a 4-4 tie in the sixth. In the bottom of the inning, things got interesting: twice Boston had a chance to turn an inning-ending double play, but the first saw second baseman Todd Walker throw wide to Garciaparra at second, and the second saw a bad-hopper to Garciaparra strike the shortstop in the chest, knocking him down momentarily and loading the bases with one out. Japanese import Ichiro Suzuki then lofted a foul pop toward the Mariners’ dugout, but Sox third baseman Bill Mueller couldn’t make the sliding catch, giving Ichiro another crack at it. Next pitch? Grand slam to right, giving the M’s a comfortable 8-4 advantage. Not so fast, though: Boston loaded the bases in the eighth trailing by three, but for the second time in four games, the opposition’s strategy of bringing in the closer an inning early worked out, as another Mariners star from the Land of the Rising Sun, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, whiffed Gabe Kapler and Kevin Millar to snuff out the last hope for Boston. Sox reliever Todd Jones helped matters not a whit by surrendering two runs in the bottom of the inning as the Mariners took the opener of the three-game series, 10-5. What if, indeed ...

8/16 in Seattle (Martinez vs. Piniero): Pedro was up to his old tricks, stifling the Mariners’ vaunted attack on three hits as the Sox dominated the home team, 5-1. David Ortiz’s two-run double in the third helped wipe out the Mariners’ early 1-0 lead — the seventh-straight game in which the Sox’ opposition scored first — and the Sox bullpen again closed the door after Petey’s seven strong innings. Pretty much cut and dried, and with the victory the Sox remained atop the wild-card standings by a game over Oakland.

8/17 in Seattle (Burkett vs. Garcia): Another maddening game for Red Sox fans, as their team’s anemic offense again made a struggling pitcher look like the reincarnation of Cy Young. Freddy Garcia, who had sweated out the trading deadline in the midst of a 0-6, 10.03 ERA stretch, entered the game at 10-12, but the Sox’ bats flailed away all afternoon, mustering just four hits. After taking a 1-0 lead on Trot Nixon’s third-inning home run, Burkett was victimized by some questionable home-plate umpiring along with three bloops and a dribbler in the fourth as the Mariners scraped together three runs without the benefit of a legitimate hit. Meanwhile, batters three through seven in the Sox line-up went a combined 0-for-18, but the team still had a chance to make some noise in the eighth. Trailing 3-1, Nixon walked with two outs. Mueller hit a gap job that would have easily have allowed Nixon to score except for the fact that the ball barely bounced over the left-center-field wall for a ground-rule double, thereby holding Nixon to third. So it was still 3-1 instead of 3-2, but Garciaparra was up with the tying runs in scoring position. Nomar, who you would certainly want up there in that kind of situation, then completed his dismal 5-for-24 road trip by fanning on three pitches to Seattle rookie reliever Rafael Soriano. And that’s your ballgame.

For Sox fans, the seven-game face-off against the iron of the West could have been better, and certainly could have been worse, but it was more of a kissing-your-sister kind of feeling rather than a surge of relief after surviving the two series. Whether the Sox bats will reignite back on the home turf remains to be seen, but with the team again tied with Oakland for wild-card supremacy, it is paramount for Boston to show that it is a team consistent enough to stay in contention the rest of the way — not only in the wild-card but in the division, where the Sox now trail the Empire Staters by five full games. The Orioles dropped three in Tampa and four at home to the Yanks after taking three of four at the Fens last weekend, so they’re not expected to provide much aid to the Sox this coming weekend when the Birds visit Yankee Stadium.

Boston’s 39-19 at home, while Oakland’s just 27-32 on the road and is hitting just .246 away from home. For the Fenway Faithful, that’s the good news. The bad news is that Seattle’s 36-22 on the road, and its .287 road average leads the majors.

Oakland-Seattle — seven games in seven days. Here we go again.

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com