The Red Sox are back in first, but it's not time to celebrate yet

Photo Courtesy of John Tomase, Boston Herald

The Red Sox are back in first. It seemed hard to imagine a couple weeks ago, but they kept their heads and fought their way out of the hole they were in. Even now they are keeping cool, though and Mike Napoli personified that attitude after last night's 9-3 win over Philadelphia. He said in his post-game interview on NESN that there will be ups and the key is trying to win every game. That focus has allowed them to steady the ship and get back to the team we saw at the beginning of the season.

It's a good mentality to have, because it is a long season and there will be more skids and there will be more winning streaks. What the team can do is make sure the winning streaks outnumber the losing streaks. They can't worry about the standings right now, because that will just wind up in them losing their focus, then they'll look more like last year's team. The other thing they can't do is take their foot off the gas. That's what happened in 2011, and they managed to get on the wrong side history by pulling off one of the greatest chokes of all time. I will say this, though - their heads seem to be screwed on the right way this year. That means trouble for everyone else in the league. The important thing is the Red Sox passed the first test with flying colors, but there will surely be many more to come during the year and they'll have to pass them all to make a run at getting back into the playoffs.

Twitter - @ConorJF1016
Conor Frederick
Contributing Wrtier