Streaking Sox can bring it on home

From here to the All-Star break, there are 10 games to play for the Red Sox. All of them will take place at Fenway Park. The opponents have been outscored by a combined 110 runs this season, while going a whopping 21 games under .500.

Clearly, now is not the time for Boston to let up.

Possessors of the best record in the American League and a 20-8 record beginning May 31, the Red Sox will return home tomorrow for the opener of a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners. After that, Nomar Garciaparra and the Oakland A’s will come to town for three games. After that, it’s the Kansas City Royals for four, a series in which the Sox already may have caught a break because they are scheduled to miss Zack Greinke.

Repeat: The Royals will be here for four days and the only KC starter whom the Sox are in line to bypass is the man in line to start the All-Star Game. Greinke is due to start Friday (vs. the White Sox) and Wednesday (at Detroit). This comes after a stretch earlier this season during which the Sox twice side-stepped Toronto’s Roy Halladay while somehow avoiding Detroit’s Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson, among others.

The moral of the story? It’s better to be lucky than good, but it’s best to be both.

Here is a preview of the homestand, broken down by opponent:

SEATTLE MARINERS (July 3-5)

The Mariners took 2 of 3 from the Sox in Seattle in mid-May, a series that began with Jon Lester’s one-inning meltdown and ended with a memorable throwing error by shortstop Nick Green. The Red Sox are pitching much better now than they were then and, as we all know, they are a completely different team at Fenway Park, where they thus far have posted the best record in the league.

While the Sox will send Tim Wakefield, Brad Penny, and Jon Lester to the mound in this series, the Mariners will counter with Hernandez, Garret Olson, and Brandon Morrow. Hernandez (8-3, 2.54) has never allowed a run in two career starts at Fenway (2-0, 0.00), and he is one of the truly gifted young pitchers in the game. Thanks largely to Hernandez and a bullpen that ranks second to the Red Sox (3.18) in the majors with a 3.29 ERA, the Mariners have hovered near .500 despite scoring the fewest runs in the American League and ranking 29th in the majors in runs scored.

As a result, all signs this weekend point to low-scoring, relatively close games -- the scores in May were 4-5, 5-3, 2-3 -- especially with Mike Lowell absent from the Boston lineup and Jason Bay struggling. Given the strength of the respective bullpens, the team scoring first will likely possess a big advantage. On Saturday and Sunday, especially, the Red Sox would be well-served to score against the Seattle starters and take control of the games early.

OAKLAND A’S (July 6-8)

In a series that will mark Nomar Garciaparra’s first trip to Boston since the landmark 2004 trade that shipped him to the Chicago Cubs, the Red Sox look to have a big advantage. At the moment, the A’s have the second-worst record in the league and, like the Mariners, a dreadful offense. In the Mariners, A’s and Royals, in fact, the mighty Sox pitching staff will face the three worst offenses in the American League.

Entering this season, many believed the potential success of the A’s hinged on the performance of their young pitching staff, which actually has been quite decent. Gio Gonzalez (0-2, 7.27 ERA), Dallas Braden 6-7, 3.13), and Trevor Cahill (5-6, 4.23) are scheduled to face John Smoltz, Josh Beckett, and Wakefield in a series that again should be controlled by the pitchers.

For the A’s, offense has been a major problem. Despite picking up Jason Giambi, Garciaparra, Orlando Cabrera, and Matt Holliday, Oakland ranks in the bottom three of the league in runs (12th), home runs (14th) and OPS (14th). That is likely to continue against a Red Sox pitching staff that is the deepest in baseball.

KANSAS CITY ROYALS (July 9-12)

Along with an anemic offense, here is something else the Royals share with the Mariners and A’s: a wretched defense. Entering the final days of the first half, the Mariners have committed 59 errors, most in the league. The Royals (57) and A’s (54) are right on their heels, all three teams ranking among the bottom four in the AL in defense.

Should the Red Sox indeed miss Greinke, this four-game set could be a nothing more than a block party. Though the Royals rank ninth in the American League with a 4.30 team ERA, that figure balloons to 4.78 minus Greinke –- and that number would place the Royals among the bottom three teams in the league.

Get the picture? Take away Greinke and the Royals can’t pitch, hit, or field. In fact, when Greinke does not get a decision, the Royals are 23-41.

As any of the Red Sox would be eager to tell you, any type of lapse on their part would negate the many advantages they seem to possess entering the final homestand of the first half. Tuesday’s late-inning collapse in Baltimore is proof. But if the Sox can stay focused over these final 10 days, they could go into the All-Star break more than 20 games over .500 and with a firm grasp on a potential playoff spot, affording them invaluable margin for error approaching both the trading deadline and stretch runs.

As most everyone knows, the major league baseball season is like a golf tournament: you can’t win it on the first two days; you can only lose it. That said, as the Red Sox approach the cut with the weekend in mind, there are a few more birdies out there for them on the way back to the clubhouse.