Abraham: AL East Is Wide Open & There For The Taking
BOSTON (CBS) - The Red Sox rallied for seven runs in the eighth inning on Sunday afternoon and won by the final score of 7-4, helping to complete the three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics.
Three games in a row marks the longest winning streak of the year for Boston (27-31), who are currently 5.5 games back of the division-leading New York Yankees (32-25).
98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich talked to Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe Monday morning about a variety of Red Sox topics, including the tight race in the American League East.
As impressive as the Yanks have been, winners of six straight, Abraham says they are a flawed team that could easily be surpassed.
"I still would like to see how this is going to last, because they do have a lot of older players, a lot of questions in the pitching staff and they're not a team with good prospects that can come up and fill those holes," Abraham said of the Yankees. "As well as they are doing now, I still think the AL East is almost anybody's for the taking because it's been that bad."
Don't look now, but the Toronto Blue Jays (28-30) are on a hot streak as well. The Jays have won five in a row and possess the highest run differential in the American League. They are also the subject of many trade rumors.
"[Toronto's] management team is under a lot of pressure, so you would think that they would make the moves if only to keep their jobs. Whether it's Jonathan Papelbon and Cole Hamels or some other combination of players, Toronto is probably going to do something. That could maybe set things in motion with other teams in the league," Abraham said.
He added, "I think with the AL East it's almost like everybody is waiting around to see what's going to happen, and see who makes that first move, because you can sort of say they are all in contention -- even with losing records. It's almost like, for any team in that division, you are a good week away from being in first place."
Abraham also talked about stabilizing the Red Sox lineup, the incident at Fenway Park on Friday night and more.
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