Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things...

Well I think we learn a lot this week - the team either shows it has the abilty, and the will, to bounce back from a horrendous couple of weeks, or... it doesn't...

Given the difficulty of the schedule this week, it is difficult to guage what bouncing back will look like - is it 5-4, is it 6-3... or is 4-5? And for a west coast swing, it is a very strange schedule - in order, 3 in Anaheim, 3 in Seattle, 3 in Oakland - and sadly I miss the Sox by a day in Seattle, although I will be at Safeco on Thursday, to root, root, root for the home team.

To start off the trip we go for the apparently weak part of our rotation - Snyder tonight and Lester tomorrow, who will face the rookie Joe Saunders, fresh from a poor outing against the Rangers and Kelvim Escobar, fresh from a great start against the Rangers, respectively.

What I would be fascinated to see tomorrow is the NESN ratings - I guess that 10pm ET starts are the ratings low for Sox games, and after this last weekend, how many Sox fans will still be there 3 or 4 innings in?