The Red Sox 96 and 66 season could not have started off better for this team who is now making their second world series trip in four years. They got off to a great first month of baseball with a 16-7 record which had them out in front of the Yankees by a decent margin. They would continue to burst the gap open between them and their longtime rivals until August where they lost 13 games in that month including being swept by the Yankees. At this point the Red Sox still had a sizeable lead against the Yankees but people were beginning to wonder if the old curse was taking place again. In September things did not go much better for the Sox. They lost two out of three to the Yankees and then the following series were swept by Toronto. At this time also, the Yankees were unstoppable and really gaining ground on the Sox. Knowing that if they did not turn things  around soon their AL East title hopes would be over they won 6 of their next 9 games to hold on to their division with a two game lead over the Yankees. A lead that had once been as much as 14 and a half!

In the Postseason, the Red Sox started off where they ended the regular season. Josh Becket pitched a great game one followed by a Papelbon win and then a great pitching performance by Curt Schilling. They would sweep the Angels easily winning by a combined score of 19-4. In the other side of the AL playoff bracket, the Indians handled the Yankees to advance to the ALCS to face the Red Sox. With a dominant win in game one for the Sox everyone pretty much figured they were headed to the World Series again. However, the Indians powered back to win the next three games decisevly  to defeat the Sox in those three games by a combined score of 24-11. While it was looking very grim for the Sox, many Red Sox fans still believed their team could pull of another "2004" if u know what I mean and take the series back. In game 5 with the series on the line, Beckett had another Cy Young pitching performance to keep his teams world series hopes alive. Schilling followed with another  great pitching performance sending his team to game 7 in Boston. Dice-K who had lossed a game previously in the series started the first three innings flawlessly while his offense gave him three runs. The next two innings he gave up a run apiece and was pulled to start the sixth. With the score at 3-2 Boston, Okajima was called on to pitch. From there on out it  was over. In the seventh and eigth innings the sox scored a combined eight runs to close out a great series. Coco Crisp's spectacular catch at the wall to end the game summed up this series pretty well i think. Looked pretty tough to win in the beginning but in the end they pulled through. The Sox are headed to the World Series looking strong.