Believe it or not we've entered the final month of the regular season with the Boston Red Sox not only leading the AL East but all of the American League with 83 wins. 5 months ago pretty much no one, including myself, would have believed that to be true. Not only is that the case but I believe it will be the same at the end of the month when the regular season comes to a close. Can a September collapse happen? Sure, anything is possible. The last 5 games, for me, are all the proof necessary to show that won't be the case.

The success of a team almost always comes down to pitching. The last 5 performances from each of the starters in the rotation were some of the strongest of the season and happened in a row. You can't ask for more with 25 days left.

Last night was the cherry on top. Jon Lester taking on the best offense in the AL in the Detroit Tigers and the Red Sox offense facing the best pitcher in the AL in Max Scherzer. It had all the makings of a playoff game and like we've seen consistently all season, the team rose to the occasion. Lester pitched the best we've seen in about 2 years, the Red Sox offense found a way to take the lead and then Jon Farrell pieced together the bullpen to get to Uehara, who continues to be lights out.

Lastly, every time this teams suffers a tough loss and you think this is the beginning of a downward spiral, they bounce back. Another example of that was the past two day against the Tigers. It's another characteristic of teams that play in October. At the beginning of the season I wasn't so sure this team had enough, I'm happy to tell you I was wrong.

The math is in Boston's favor as well up 5 1/2 games on the Rays, 8 games on the Yankees and 8 1/2 games on Baltimore. They have 22 games remaining and yes the majority of them are against those teams. You'd have to think even if they went .500, the Sox would still have a comfortable lead on September 29th.

It's September and it seems to all be there. Pitching. Bullpen. Offense. Manager. Does that make you nervous or confident?