Quick sports talk

First of all - the reasons the Sox will win this series and ultimately the World Series: Very good, tested starting pitching. 1-5 in the batting order. Very strong defense. Papelbon.

Why they'll lose: Too many injuries. No Mike Lowell (instead of Lowell/Youkilis you have Youk/Kotsay). They probably won't be pitching Lester again unless we get to 7 games. Beckett isn't Beckett this year (he must be hurt still). Mike Timlin is on the roster.

The good news: Even if they don't win this one, we've got two of the last four already. Not too shabby (and the only multiple winner so far this decade). The Yankees are in utter disarray. The way the Sox farm system has been working, reinforcements are arriving every year. They should remain competitive. To get in the playoffs 5 out of the last 6 years and win two titles is pretty special. To win 3 (this year if they do) would be amazing. The playoff streaks Atlanta and the Yankees had were on another level, but neither team has won this decade.

Football - with Brady down, the Patriots aren't going to win the Super Bowl this year, though they still well may be a playoff team. But the more important thing is that there is absolutely no powerhouse team this year. Period. There's a bunch of decent teams, each with serious flaws that are one bad player performance away from getting blown out. The Patriot philosophy of developing a good solid middle class of interchangable players seems to be getting adopted league-wide, and as a result the pickings are thinner. So pretty much no team (except maybe the Raiders) is truly horrible, but no team is really that good. 4 more weeks and we should know who will contecd but right now even the unbeaten Titans have issues.

In racing, did Carl Edwards just have a lousy week or what?