I think that it would be fair to suspect that the 2012 Boston Red Sox team is going to finish somewhere in the realm of +/- 5 games around .500. Maybe 78 wins, maybe 82, maybe 85, but probably not too much more or less.

Will that get them into the playoffs? My gut instincts tell me no, as the American League tends to throw strong Wild Card teams into the playoffs, but who knows at this point. Nobody in the race looks that dominant…

Including the Boston Red Sox, after losing three of four to the lowly Minnesota Twins immediately after taking two of three from the Detroit Tigers, who are first in the Wild Card. 

Just toss a coin in the air, guys: heads or tails. That’s as good of a prediction you’ll make this year in regards to how the Red Sox are going to perform on any given day. 

Here are this week’s player awards:

Best Hitter: This deservingly goes to Adrian Gonzalez, who just looks a whole lot better at the plate. He’s now got 11 homers on the year; hopefully he’ll finish with 20 and close to 100 RBI’s. 

Best Pitcher: Clay Buckholz is certainly our ace. He’s thrown two great outings during the last week, allowing 2 earned runs in 15 innings, and is 9-3 on the year. 

Biggest Surprise: Sir Carl Crawford actually looks like he’s finally playing with a purpose; he hasn’t been stealing many bases, but he’s surely scoring a lot of runs, and in the end that’s what we brought him here for. 

Biggest Disappointment: My man Dustin Pedroia hasn’t been playing well, which makes my prediction from a couple weeks ago that he’ll hit .300 look like shit – but we all know we really need this little guy if we want to be in the hunt come September. 

Unsung Hero: Pedro Ciriaco deserves this award, as the Sox have been throwing him around the middle infield and no matter what, the kid puts up numbers. The 26 year-old will have a pretty decent career ahead of him if he keeps this play up. 

Bum Of The Week: Closer Alfredo Aceves allowed a three-run homer to the Twins’ Joe Mauer to lose the game for the Red Sox on Saturday, so, yeah… he’s the bum of the week. We needed that win…

Injuries: We need David Ortiz back; and we probably need Andrew Bailey soon if we want to make a run at the playoffs, too, seeing as how inconsistent Aceves is. The lack of moves at the trade deadline might mean a no-playoff season for the Red Sox. 

Coming Up: Three at home verses the Texas Rangers and four in Cleveland against the Indians. We need to give Texas a good run like we did a couple weeks back and we must pound the Indians into the ground, as they’re slipping out of the playoff race faster than we are. The Sox need to go at least 4-3 this week; preferably 5-2, 6-1 or 7-0.