No offense, but can Sox score when it counts?

From the Rays to the Jays and back, more good pitching awaits. At this stage, the question is whether the Red Sox can handle it.

With the Red Sox in the midst of a 10-game stretch against the two best pitching staffs in the American League, perhaps the answers are coming into focus. Against Tampa, Toronto, and the Los Angeles Angels this season, the Red Sox are 12-23 and have averaged 3.8 runs per game; against everyone else, the Sox are 73-37 and have averaged 5.7 runs per contest. Those differences are so striking that you cannot help but wonder if they have the ability to score when they need to.

"I think it's pretty evident," catcher Jason Varitek said during the recent Tampa series when asked if the Sox had to win differently than they did a year ago. "We're really not a team that scores too many runs. We're a team that relies on pitching and defense. We're not going to score 10 runs."

Well, yes and no.

Clearly, that depends on the opponent.

Before we go on here, let's clarify: One of the oldest laws of baseball is that good pitching beats good hitting, always and without exception. Even a good hitter generally fails seven out of 10 times. It is for that reason that general manager Theo Epstein has stressed the importance of a deep lineup, so that the Sox could run up pitch counts (especially against good pitching) and get into the softest spot of an opponent's pitching staff -- the middle relievers.

(This is precisely how the Yankees consistently defeated Pedro Martinez in his prime.)

Last month, in the aftermath of the Manny Ramirez trade, the Red Sox scored more runs (170) than any big league club but the Baltimore Orioles (177). But maybe we all overlooked something: the Sox generally did so against pitching staffs that were average to poor. From Aug. 1 through Sept. 5, while going 23-10, the Sox batted .305, slugged a whopping .485 and averaged 6.6 runs per game to re-establish their place as a legitimate championship contender.

Know what happened next? Tampa came to Fenway and took 2 of 3 from the Sox during a series in which Boston batted .213 and scored nine runs, despite pitching matchups that seemed to favor the home team. The Rays played the entire series without Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford, lost B.J. Upton to injury in the opener, and their ace, James Shields, did not pitch. (Shields also will miss the Sox' upcoming series in Tampa, but the Sox won't be so lucky against the Blue Jays. This weekend, the Sox will face two of Toronto's best pitchers -- A.J. Burnett on Saturday and Roy Halladay on Sunday, both on short rest -- and will have to deal with them again next week in Toronto.)

How does one explain this? As always, that is difficult to say. When the Sox swapped Ramirez for Jason Bay, the front office acknowledged that Ramirez's production was impossible for any one man to replace. What makes Ramirez a truly special run producer is that he still has the ability to hit good pitching, as evidenced by his game-winning home run against Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez during last season's ALDS.

Beyond that, even in the wake of the Ramirez deal, the Sox have admitted (more than once) that they are a different team when they get production from Jason Varitek and Jacoby Ellsbury, particularly the latter. Minus Ramirez's power, there seemingly is a greater need to create offense, bringing Ellsbury's speed into the equation. The obvious problem is that Ellsbury is a rookie whose play is understandably flawed and inconsistent; in 30 games against the Jays, Rays, and Angels this year, Ellsbury is batting .209 with six walks (in 115 at-bats) and 13 runs scored.

(It's worth noting that speed is the only advantage the injured Julio Lugo has over the preferred Jed Lowrie. Ellsbury, Lugo, and Coco Crisp are the fastest runners on the club, and other than a recent hot streak, Crisp has had minimal impact on the Boston offense since his arrival here in 2006.)

On the surface, it certainly seems as if the Sox are especially vulnerable against good pitching minus Ramirez and reliable output from their speedsters. In Wednesday's loss against Tampa, Bay went 0 for 7 with three strikeouts, looking overmatched against Tampa's Jason Hammel, who fed Bay sliders away in his final at-bat.

But there is good news, too. Over the last six weeks, Epstein has added more pitching and depth (Paul Byrd and Mark Kotsay) while the bullpen has stabilized. The Red Sox now seem far more equipped to win low-scoring games than they did earlier in the season, when Ramirez was still wearing the uniform and the bullpen was a far greater concern.

In the end, as the Red Sox head toward October, the games of the next week are worth watching for more than one reason.

They need to keep winning games, which means they need to prove they can score when the situation demands it.