Are the Red Sox World Series Material? If It's Anyone Else that isn't the Giants - or Yankees.

It looks like the San Francisco Giants' hopes of making it to a 3rd World Series in 4 seasons are over with the Giants now 19 games behind the LA Dodgers (ho-hum) in the NL West and 16.5 games behind the Cincinnati Reds in the wildcard at this stage.

While the season still has a full month to negotiate, it is safe to say that it would take something quite miraculous for the Giants to make the playoffs this season especially given the quality in the National League this season.

Matt Cain will be spending more time on the bench now

Add the fact that lead pitcher, Matt Cain, has been placed on the injury list and Bruce Bochy has a tough ask to get baseball beyond the end of September to San Francisco.

Once again, deja vu has hit the Giants - World Series hangover also happened in 2011, the season after the Giants won the World Series in 2010, and once again, the Giants will have to contemplate another makeover of the bullpen and batting lineup in the off-season.

Oh well, at least, there was the Freak's memorable no-hitter against the Padres in July.

In the meantime, one team that has really grabbed the headlines for its unexpected success this summer was in Sisco quite recently - and no it's not Team New Zealand who look set for a tilt at the America's Cup against home team Oracle out in the Bay.

Red Sox at Giants - for the first time ever in league action

The Boston Red Sox have been the turnaround story of 2013. Let's not forget that a year ago, the Red Sox were heading towards their worst finish in years - they ended up last in the AL East - and calls were growing for first-year coach Bobby Valentine to step down.

In came, John Ferrell from the Toronto Blue Jays and the results have been evident. The Red Sox are leading the way along with the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East - and for Red Sox fans, the table looks even sweeter with the Yankees 6 games behind and slightly struggling in the wake of A-Rod's drug scandal.

Jacob Ellsbury has been fleet-footed this season

The Red Sox's hitting which was anaemic last season, is number 2 in the nation (.274 average) and this was evident in the Red Sox's 12-1 hiding of the Giants at AT&T Park 2 days ago - impressive given that it is one of the hardest places to put big scores on the board. Jacob Ellsbury who leads the national stats in stolen bases - 40 this season - has been a key factor in the Red Sox's success on the scoreboard.

The Red Sox's pitching is okay (17th at 3.83) although they might be able to get away with that in the post-season - the Tigers' pitching was superior to the Giants in the regular season but they ended up being walloped 4-0 in the World Series last year. Jack Lester is pitching very well and might very well be in the best form of his life.

The same can be said about their fielding - 15th best nationally ahead of the 28th placed Giants and this was evident in that 12-1 game.

Given the MLB is such a big league, fans tend to often have more than 1 team to follow, and to be honest, if the Giants couldn't do it this season, I'd rather see the Boston Red Sox win the Pennant - a) they're owned by John Henry who owns my favourite EPL team, Liverpool, b) they're not the Yankees and c) it would be a fabulous gesture for those who were affected by the Boston Marathon bombing earlier this year.

Are we set to see scenes like this from 2007 again?

Speaking of which Giants go to Yankee Stadium in September - it'll sort of recreate memories of the old New York rivalry when the Giants and Yankees were both still based in the New York area. A Giants win or two would be very sweet - and probably will help the Red Sox and Rays immensely.

When the Giants weren't just a football team in New York

Inter-league baseball. What a gem. Thank you Houston Astros and MLB.