The Red Sox are only four games out!

It's no longer doom and gloom time when it comes to the Boston Red Sox.

Was it disappointing that they didn't take both games from the Colorado Rockies this week? Of course. Is it weird that they have three off days in about a weeklong span at this point in the season? You betcha. But this is a good opportunity to talk about how legit this team is this season.

After the 3-9 start, they're now 23-20 -- three games above .500. That is a solid baseball team. Someone might say that's an 87 win pace but you know what? It's really not if you count out the slow start the team got off to; they could do much better than it.

If you look at the standings, you would notice (as of May 16 2:34 p.m.) that the Red Sox are only four games out of first place behind the Tampa Bay Rays. The New York Yankees are half a game behind the Rays as well. This is a three-team race and in terms of momentum at this moment, the Red Sox, who have been playing catchup for the whole time, probably have the edge--but they'll need to keep up this high level of play to prove it.

This won't be easy with some difficult opponents coming up like the Houston Astros (two of their next three serieses), Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees. There's a sweepable Toronto Blue Jays series mixed in there and a Kansas City Royals series after the Yankees series, but you get the idea. The Indians are overrated, so the terrain might not be too bad, but easier times will come in the future. Right now, the Red Sox just need to keep playing to their best of their ability and weather through this tough storm.