by Jerry Feitelberg

AP photo: Xander Bogaerts jumps for joy with Boston Red Sox teammate David Ortiz (34) after hitting a first inning home run against the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday at Fenway Park. The Red Sox are in Oakland starting Friday night.

OAKLAND- The powerful Boston Red Sox will be here in Oakland Friday to start a three-game series with the lowly Oakland Athletics. The Red Sox are in second-place in the AL East and are two games behind the Toronto Blue Jays for the top spot in the division. The Sox hold the first Wild Card slot, but the Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles are right behind. They trail the Sox by two games as of Thursday.

The Red Sox, skippered by John Farrell, are loaded with hitters all over the field. Their weakness has been pitching, both starting and relieving. David Price, Rick Porcello, Drew Pomeranz, Steven Wright and Eduardo Rodriguez make up the starting five. Price, who will pitch Friday night, got off to a slow start with Boston, but he has pitched well lately. His record is 13-8, and he has an ERA of 3.97. Rick Porcello will pitch Saturday. Porcello is having a terrific season. His record is 18-3, and his ERA is 3.26. The Red Sox will send lefty Eduardo Rodriguez to the hill on Sunday. Rodriguez owns a record of 2-6, and his ERA is 5.35. He sprained a knee early in the season and had not been consistent. The Sox hope that the big ballpark in Oakland will be to his liking. The Sox bullpen has also had problems. Junichi Tazawa, Koji Uehara, and Craig Kimbrel have all been on the DL this season. Kimbrel is back, but Uehara is still not available, and Tazawa has been inconsistent. Former starter Clay Buchholz has been used in relief, and he has been quite effective. Other stalwarts are Matt Barnes, former Athletic Fernando Abad, Robbie Ross and another former Athletic Brad Ziegler.

The Red Sox offense is potent. They lead the league in runs scored. The infield features Xander Bogaerts at short, Dustin Pedroia at second, Hanley Ramirez at first and Travis Shaw and Aaron Hill platoon at third. Bogaerts is hitting .306 with 17 homers and 77 ribbies. Pedroia is hitting .323 with 12 dingers and 58 RBIs. Ramirez, who had a terrible season last year playing left field, is playing first, and he owns a .281 batting average and good power numbers-19 dingers and 84 runs batted in. Shaw was hot earlier in the year, and the Sox acquired Hill to alternate with Shaw at third.Both players cannot be taken lightly as they both have a lot of pop in their bats.

Mookie Betts, who is just twenty-three years old, is having a sensational year and is the running for the Most Valuable Player award. Betts is hitting .320 and has thirty home runs and ninety-six RBIs. He is just the third Red Sox player under the age of twenty-four to hit 30 homers in a season. Who were the other two? One was Ted Williams, and the other was Tony Conigliaro.Jackie Bradley Jr patrols center field for the Sox and Bradley, who was a number one prospect, finally has put it all together and is a wonderful defensive player and his offense shows a batting average of .273, and he has hit twenty-two balls out of the park, and knocked in seventy-five. The left fielders are Brock Holt and Chris Young. Young is another former Oakland Athletic on the Boston roster. Both Young and Holt spent time on the DL, but both possess power and can do damage.

Sandy Leon is the Boston catcher, and he has shown that he has a very potent bat. Leon is hitting .350 with seven long balls and twenty-eight knocked in in just 177 at-bats this year.

We now come to talk about Boston’s designated hitter, the incomparable David “Big Papi” Ortiz. This visit to Oakland will be his last one as an active player. Ortiz is going out with a bang. He sent 31 balls out of the park and has 102 runs batted in. He is hitting .313 and has an OPS of 1.022 Fans should flock to the ballpark to Ortiz play this weekend. The fans in Boston love him and who could forget him when he spoke to the fans after the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. Boston Strong became the symbol of the Red Sox and Boston that year. The A’s and everyone involved in Major League Baseball will miss the big guy.

The A’s will have their work cut out for them this weekend. The A’s are bringing up their young players and are in the process of rebuilding. Josh Reddick,  Rich Hill, and Coco Crisp are gone. Sonny Gray, DannyFelix Dubrount, Sean Doolittle, Jesse Hahn, Sean Manaea all have been on the DL one time or another this DannyValencia, Khris Davis, Marcus Semien, Stephen Vogt and Yonder Alonso have produced, but they are good players, not great ones. The A’s will be playing Jake Smolinski, Bruce Maxwell, Chad Pinder, Joey Wendle, Brett Eibner, and Ryon Healy along with some of the older veterans.

The A’s are currently in the cellar in the AL West. However, A’s manager Bob Melvin will not let these guys quit. They will be playing for not only pride but for their jobs with the team next year. Look for the A’s to put up a good fight this weekend and as they say in baseball” you never know what’s going to happen.”