The most important series of the year so far, by far, begins tonight in Florida as the Sox take on the first-place Rays behind Nick Pivetta (7:10 p.m., NESN, ESPN).
After yesterday’s demoralizing loss in Cleveland, the Sox sit eight games back of the Rays with one day to go in August. They’re also two games back of the Yankees, but still currently occupy a wild card spot. So that’s good. The hard part isn’t occupying the spot as much as it is keeping the spot, which could be tough against a Tampa Bay team buoyed by the hot-hitting rookie Wander Franco and the ageless wonder Nelson Cruz.