Dear Red Sox Starters: Time to Earn Your Pay

Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, and John Lackey are a combined 40-20 this season for Boston.

It's that time of year. We have reached the juncture of the season where your big-money guys need to play like big-money guys. With the most important series of the season kicking off tonight, Boston's top three starters all season -- Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, and John Lackey -- will get the starts against the Tampa Bay Rays. And, without being too greedy, the Red Sox could really use a sweep in this weekend set from the Trop.

Boston is 5.5 games back of both the Rays and the Yankees. The good part is that the Sox still play each team 6 more times. If they can get hot against one of those teams, anything is still possible. Throw in the fact that the Yankees and Rays play each other 7 more times, and this hunt is far from over. But it starts tonight. Jon Lester needs to pitch like the Cy Young contender he was in the first half of the season. It won't be easy for Lester, who is going up against one of the only southpaws in the league as good as himself. David Price is 15-5 with a 2.96 ERA, and this rag-tag Red Sox lineup is going to have to find ways to produce against the ace of Tampa's staff.

Dustin Pedroia may need surgery on his sore foot that would end his 2010 campaign. It isn't definite as of yet, but the Red Sox have to move forward under the assumption that Pedroia isn't returning this year. Hell, it's going to be a very difficult go of it. Can you remember a team so decimated by injuries to have still made a splash in the postseason? Just getting there is enough of a challenge. And the Red Sox won't get there unless their top players produce to their abilities. Drop 2 out of 3 to the Rays in this series and you can all but kiss our playoff hopes goodbye.

Still, optimism reigns with this Red Sox club. They all feel like they're playing good baseball and that they have a big run left in them. Right now, just about every analyst on planet earth is etching the Yankees and Rays into the playoff stone. A three-game sweep and a huge momentum swing would cut that deficit to just 2.5 games and might start turning a few heads. The Rays have gotten the best of Boston just about all season long. This is the exact type of scenario for which we signed guys like Jon Lackey in the offseason. This is the situation that we hoped guys like Lester and Buchholz would be able to rise to the occasion for. In this town, you don't gain legendary status without clutch performances in games like these. Clay Buchholz -- do you ever want to reach Pedro status? You have a long road ahead of you, but it's important to know that putting up regular season stats isn't the only thing that makes someone great in Boston. This market comes with expectations, and clutch performances when everything is on the line are the factors that win these fans over. The Red Sox have their three best going up against Tampa's three best. It's as close to a playoff series for Boston as you'll get in the regular season. How will they respond?

There's a famous quote that reads, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." We all might remember Clay Buchholz's fabulous season this year. We all remember Jon Lester's fight back from cancer and his world series-clinching victory against the Rockies. We'll remember the quality starter that John Lackey can be. But will any of these guys become legends? That remains to be seen, but they're already headed down the road. Now it's time to show they have the gas in the tank to reach the end of that road. It starts tonight.