NEW YORK -- Just shy of the 100-game mark, the Red Sox sit a game under .500, in last place in the American League East, with the fourth-worst record in the American League.
The Sox just dropped two of three in Texas and, heading into a weekend series against the Yankees, have lost five of their last six overall.
But that's not what Bobby Valentine sees.
"I think we're heading in the right direction,'' said Valentine. "We got off to a lousy start there with some confusion in our bullpen. We've been about five games over (.500) since a bad start in April and I think we can build on that to go to 10, 15, 20 games over, I think.''
Perhaps sensing that his projection sounded overly optimistic given the current state of the team, Valentine explained himself further.
"I see Adrian Gonzalez and Dustin Pedroia really hitting their stride,'' said Valentine. "We went 80 games without them really hitting their stride. They're feeling good. I see David Ortiz close to coming back, I see Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford in the lineup and I see our bullpen pretty well stabilized and our starting staff feeling pretty good about themselves.
"Everyone says, 'How the heck can this staff feel good about themselves without Josh Beckett and Jon Lester not winning their last starts and all that.' They're healthy and throwing the ball well and I believe when you have quality people and they're healthy, maybe the ball is not hit at people or whatever the hell it is, that combine to go have them not get W's and not do as well as we wanted them to do in some of the games, I think that they will. I think they're healthy and they have quality. That's a lot.
Boston Red Sox
"The young guys that we have playing are more established than they were earlier. Daniel Nava is more established, Will Middlebrooks is much more established than he was earlier. Salty Jarrod Saltalamacchia has 20 home runs, Kelly Shoppach is working really well with them. It's a team that's come along pretty well.
"I don't see things going backward.''