The Red Sox head out for their most challenging road trip so far this season and do so with Major League Baseball’s fourth best record. May has been a fantastic month for the offense, with slow starter Mark Loretta coming around, Manny heating up and the supporting cast of Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis chipping in more than anyone could have hoped. Those out there assuming the Sox will come crashing back to earth when Lowell and Youkilis cool off would be well-served to check out the numbers from other Sox players this month. David Ortiz and Jason Varitek have struggled, and can both be reasonably expected to pick up their games. Finally, Coco Crisp returns (as Wily Mo Pena heads to the DL) and getting him back in the lineup consistently should be a shot in the arm for the offense. Overall this Sox offense is potent at the moment, and figures to be for the season.

The same cannot be said for the pitching. Of the starters, only Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling have been able to pitch with consistency, and that characterization really gives Schilling the benefit of the doubt. Tim Wakefield has been off-and-on, Clement just terrible at times and who even knows what the story with Boston’s fifth starter is? I was sure David Wells’s career was over Friday night until I read today that he wants to make his next start! The bullpen situation fails to inspire as well. With Mike Timlin heading to the Disabled List, the Sox will need to find an effective combination to get the ball to Jonathan Papelbon. Good luck. Though he has been better of late, Rudy Seanez still looks ridiculously hittable out there, Julian Tavarez has been erratic all season and you never know what you’re getting out of Keith Foulke. Manny Delcarmen, in separate Big League stints, has failed to live up to his billing.

That Timlin’s loss came on the eve of the Sox’s toughest 10-game stretch of the year is just a terrible break. The Blue Jays are first, then off to face MLB’s best team so far, the Detroit Tigers and then they cap off the trip in the Bronx. The Sox figure to be in a number of dogfights, games in which they could use their trusty middleman but the Sox will need to slap together something dependable in his stead if they want to hang onto leads. It won’t be easy.

They kick things off tonight with a disadvantageous pitching match-up. Matt Clement takes the ball for the Sox while Roy Halladay goes for the Jays.