Boston has 15 games left this year vs. the Devil Rays…

The Rays are so atrocious that Tim Donaghy could have big money on their games and be umping, and that wouldn't help. If Bud Selig were alive he would be investigating how a team could get tens of millions in revenue sharing/luxury tax dollars annually, and assemble a team with so little pitching and so much indifference to playing with passion and precision.
I don't know if Barry Bonds should have an asterisk next to his accomplishments, but there should be one attached to every offensive achievement vs. Tampa's staff. The Rays' bullpen looks like they assembled the winners of a reality TV show: Who Wants to Pitch in the Majors?
So while I am a sucker for feel-good stories like career farmhand Shelley Duncan spending the weekend getting curtain calls, you will have to forgive me if I look at the three blasts he hit in two days as merely career minor-league homers Nos. 129-131. These were opposing pitchers, after all, he was as likely to face in Durham vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as in The Bronx.
It would be wonderful for the Yanks if Duncan were the most recent version of Kevin Maas or, especially, Shane Spencer, guys who endured long apprenticeships in the system before instantly jolting the Yankees with power and energy. But that is not something we will truly know after a Yankee weekend against a Tampa relief corps that Colter Bean and Edwar Ramirez laugh at.
In fact, it is hard to know anything when the Devil Rays are the opponents, except that you can't be happy that the team ahead of you in the standings by 7½ games plays Tampa in one of every four games the rest of the year.
"It's amazing how things can change in a few weeks if you are playing well," Andy Pettitte said.