Maybe the Tampa Bay Rays are on the verge of a American Olympic softball/track-style choke job. Maybe Josh Beckett has an October Surprise up his sleeve that will put the Democrats and Republicans to shame. Maybe the Angels will revert to being the underachieving Angels we all know and love once the playoffs start.

If we want to enjoy another memorable run for our Boston Red Sox in 2008, it looks like we’ll be counting on a lot of maybes and what-ifs and hopefullys over the next month or so.

Maybe the bullpen will find some consistency.

What if the Jasons, Varitek and Bay, stop hitting?

Hopefully Kevin Youkilis can keep playing like an MVP.

Maybe the black hole in the rotation formerly known as Clay Buchholz will be stabilized by Tim Wakefield, Bartolo Colon or somebody else in Pawtucket.

What if Jacoby Ellsbury becomes a legitimate leadoff hitter?

Hopefully Dustin Pedroia isn’t grinding himself into dust.

Maybe Daisuke Matsuzaka isn’t Japanese for “He who tortures us for five innings with incessant nibbling around the plate.”

What if Coco Crisp wasn’t allergic to maple?

Hopefully Sean Casey is at least weighing the benefits of HGH.

The Red Sox have never been sure things in the final weeks of a pennant race, even when they’ve emerged as the last team standing. The 2007 Sox had their hands full holding off the hard-charging New York Yankees last September. From this point last year, they went 20-15 down the stretch.

People forget the eventual world champs were relying on unprovens such as Matsuzaka and Jon Lester, a green Buchholz and an aging Curt Schilling in late August and September. And even when those guys did pitch well, the bullpen gate often swung open for Eric Gagne, who, and I can’t remember if it was Bob Costas or Matt Lauer spilled the beans on this, was hired by the Chinese last winter as a torch-lighting consultant.

And yet 2007 didn’t have the steady drips of bad news that has been coming down the pipe for much of 2008 – David Ortiz heard a click in his wrist…Manny is tanking it… Mike Lowell has an oblique strain… Tim Wakefield’s shoulder is tight… Buchholz has zero confidence… Beckett has numbness in his fingers… J.D. Drew has a herniated disc…Beckett has inflammation in his elbow and has to push back his side session…

It’s tough to feel good about Boston’s back-to-back prospects when so much seems to be going wrong.

But we’re not alone, my fellow Sox followers. Fans of every other team in the playoff hunt are racked with anxiety right now, too. Mets fans are worried about another epic collapse. Angels fans are worried they might have peaked too soon.

White Sox fans are fearful Ozzie Guillen will finally lose it and stage a standoff with hostages. Twins backers are worried Kevin McHale will trade Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau to Boston for Alex Cora. Cubs fans are worried about a Billy goat or some such thing. Dodger fans are worried they’ll have to put off their next Botox injection so they can afford to buy playoff tickets so they can leave in the seventh inning.

Phillies fans are afraid October baseball will cut into their Eagles booing. Brewers boosters are worried Brett Favre doesn’t still love them.

You think we’ve got problems? What about the fans in Heaven’s Waiting Room? Marlins and Devil Rays fans might not even live to see October.

It’s all a matter of perspective. For all of the ulcers the Red Sox are giving us, we don’t have to look too hard for signs of hope. Lester has pitched like an ace up until Saturday. No matter how many people he walks, Matsuzaka can’t seem to lose. Justin Masterson and Hideki Okajima are showing flashes of potentially being reliable set-ups for Jonathan Papelbon. Wakefield is due back in the rotation this week. Youkilis and Pedroia play the game like someone will have to kill them before they will allow this team to lose.

And Terry Francona is, as usual, keeping everyone on a steady course. If we’ve learned anything these past five seasons, it’s that Francona sees the forest through the trees. No one, and I mean no one, in baseball knows how to get through the highs and lows of a 162-game season better than he does. He has guided this team through murkier waters than this. The only problem is, the water seems to be getting muddier by the day.

If he can steer them through these next 31 games, 19 of which are at home, and if Beckett can stay healthy, then the Red Sox are probably playing in October.

If and when they get there, you can have your Mike Scoscias, Lou Piniellas, CC Sabathias and John Lackeys. You can even have Manny Ramirez. I’ll take the Red Sox, no maybes about it.

But it definitely isn’t a lock that they’ll get there.

Randy Whitehouse is a staff writer. He can be reached at [email protected]