Sep 3rd 2008 7:00AM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)

The Red Sox have suddenly opened up a sizable four-game edge in the wild-card race after winning Tuesday while the White Sox and Twins lost. The news gets even better when you consider that Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett are set to return on Friday, with J.D. Drew and pitcher Bartolo Colon possibly returning next week.

It’s easy to compare the 2008 Sox to the last Boston team that defended a title. Like this year’s version, the 2005 team was ravaged by injuries to key players. There’s one major difference, though, and that’s the depth in the organization. GM Theo Epstein’s vision of making the Red Sox a nine-figure player development machine has bloomed fully, and because of it Boston has a very real chance to repeat.

Their minor league system is among the most robust in the game, far different from the Dan Duquette era, and it’s enabled the Red Sox to plug many of the holes they’ve had over the course of a trying season.

When Julio Lugo went down, Jed Lowrie came up and improved the team. When the team needed a spot starter for Josh Beckett, they turned to pitching prospect Michael Bowden. When the team needed another outfielder because of Drew’s injury, they were able to deal a prospect with good upside for Mark Kotsay because of their minor league depth.Continue Reading