Red Sox Magic Number - 6

The Red Sox clinched a playoff berth last night and reduced their magic number to win the AL East to 6 games.

In Boston the number 6 means Bill Russell who is the greatest basketball player of all-time. Playing a team sport is all about winning championships and Russell won 11 in his 13 years with the Celtics. He also won 2 National college basketball championships at the University of San Francisco (1955 and 1956) plus an Olympic Gold Medal at the 1956 Olympics. The only team that might have been able to win without him was the Olympic team.

The Red Sox two big offseason acquisitions continue to be enigmas.

JD Drew is hitting .309 with a .992 OPS and 3 HR plus 10 RBI in September. Is this the real JD Drew or is Drew just feeling relaxed now that Mike Lowell has laid claim to the 5-spot in the batting order? Meanwhile Daisuke Matsuzaka is 1-1 with an 11.20 ERA in 3 September starts. It is worrisome that after Josh Beckett - the Red Sox have no sure thing in their starting pitching right now. Jon Lester is 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA in 4 September starts. Could the Red Sox possibly replace Dice-K with Lester in the short 3-man (probably) playoff pitching rotation?