Are the Red Sox going to catch fire in the second half? My tag team partner, Wallace Matthews, seems to say no in his column.

Waiting for the Red Sox to hit that hot streak is like waiting for Alex Rodriguez to start hitting like it's 2007 again. Fanciful, unrealistic notions rooted in nostalgia, not reality.

The truth is, the Red Sox are doormats this year, and their only function this weekend at Yankee Stadium is to serve as slumpbusters for the home team.

The difference between what the 2009 Yankees were able to do and what the Red Sox are unlikely to do is this: The 2009 Yankees were bad against Boston and good against virtually everyone else, and even after having lost those eight in a row, were still just two games behind, waiting to strike like Forego stalking a leisurely pace.

The 2012 Red Sox have been bad against just about everyone, and while they can hold out hope of at least one postseason game due to the new double wild-card format, any real optimism about making a postseason run has got to fall into the realm of fantasy.

I agree the Red Sox are not catching the Yankees in the AL East, but I do believe they have a hot streak in them. They have the best offense in the AL East and they haven't had Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford for much of the season. If Josh Beckett and Jon Lester could go on any sort of streak, the Sox could get hot and make up their 4 1/2 games in the wild card standings.

I still think they will be a wild card.

QUESTION: CAN THE RED SOX MAKE A RUN AT THE WILD CARD?