The Yankees are coming! The Yankees are coming!

Facing the Mariners, A’s and Royals in a 10-game cake of a homestand to close out of the first half of the baseball season, the Boston Red Sox were handed a golden opportunity to engineer some space between themselves and the arch-rival Yankees in the AL East.

The three squads are a combined 22 games under .500 on the season, but the suddenly struggling Sox are operating slightly under a pace of “win one/lose one” ball against the trio of American League pretenders – and in the process allowing a potential-filled situation to slip right out of their gloves. Thursday night’s blown bullpen loss to the not-ready-for-prime-time Royals and Luke Hochevar – he of the 5.08 ERA this season and career 7.13 mark against Boston – registers as just one more defeat that left a group of mystified Sox players scratching their and wondering exactly what just happened.

Here’s a quick baseball Cliff’s Notes version of what’s happening as the Olde Towne Team slouches their way to the midseason break: normally the Sox have a West Coast trip sandwiched around the season’s traditional break with Boston either ending the first half in the Pacific Time Zone or kicking things off in the second half with a Western swing.

Instead this season – perhaps in a bit of a pitying makeup effort for last year’s hellacious trip to Japan that clearly affected some players well into last summer – the MLB schedule-makers crossed Boston’s west coast trips off the docket in the first two months of the season. And, even better, the Sox schedule headed into the break was back-loaded with the kind of AL cupcakes the Olde Towne Team normally chews up and spits out in their own ballpark.

In other words: the exact kind of teams that the Sox must manhandle on their way to another playoff berth, particularly when they’ve enjoyed leads going into the late innings of ballgames.

Instead, the Sox are 3-4 on a pivotal homestand with the Yankees playing their best baseball of the season – and there’s a bit of pressure being exerted on the front-running Boston Nine for the first time this season.

“(The Yankees) have been playing great, and that tells you the reason that we’re tied right now,” said Sox DH David Ortiz. “It’s not a surprise. We know that the Yankees know how to find ways to bounce back. We can’t worry about that. We’ve just got to go play each series.”

The Sox have been treading water with a boom-and-bust offense and a suddenly leaky bullpen, and the Bronx Bombers have surged through the standings by winning 15 of their last 17 games. It all starts in the beginning as Boston has lost four straight home series openers at the baseball stronghold otherwise known as Fenway Park, and then the locals are forced to play catch up for the rest of each designated series.

While there may be some early shades of panic in the streets of Boston with the red-hot Yanks nipping at Boston’s heels with the All-Star Break looming, the Sox players are doing nothing more than crediting the Pinstripers for surging back into the picture. The Red Stockings are a memorable 8-0 against the Yankees on the season thus far and New York was five games back in the standings as recently as two weeks ago, but they’ve made a stunning march right back into the picture

“They’re obviously playing pretty well,” said Jason Bay of Boston’s time-honored enemies in the Bronx. “Even though we’ve lost a couple of games we’re still playing pretty good. We haven’t gone in the tank. Other than Seattle we’re winning series'. You’ve got to tip your cap to them because they’ve obviously done more than that.”

With the Yankees now appearing much larger now than they did in the rearview mirror as recently as last week, here are the five things we learned last night.

Dustin Pedroia is one tough little SOB

The Sox second baseman would have been given full pardons all-around if he completely slipped into a preoccupied slump this week while his wife Kelli remains hospitalized after going into premature labor on Monday. The reigning AL MVP has been considering skipping the All-Star Game to stay back in Boston with his pregnant wife, and he’s been a noticeable absence in Boston's postgame clubhouse during recent days. Pedroia is bolting Fenway Park shortly after each game’s conclusion this week and presumably heading right back to be by his wife’s side.

There’s an easy built-in excuse for Pedroia to slacken a little at the plate or simply lose concentration in the field with so much real world stress swirling around the 25-year-old’s life, but Pedey is once again showing exactly what he’s made of.

“That’s why he’s a bad boy. He’s a pro,” said David Ortiz. “That’s why he’s our MVP right there. That’s how he rolls.”

Pedroia put together his second straight three-hit game in Thursday night’s loss, cranked his fourth home run of the season into the left field seats and leads the AL with 14 three plus hit games on the season. After watching his batting average drop into the .280’s during a failed stint as the leadoff hitter during the month of June, Pedroia is back at .300 after exactly 81 games this season.

Teammates normally draw energy from the spark plug second baseman with the man-sized chip on his shoulder, but instead they’ve rallied around their favorite smack-talkin’ second baseman during his time of need and lent their hopes, prayers and positive energy.

With all of this in mind, Pedroia is playing remarkably inspired baseball while recapturing the uphill, max-effort swing and spraying line drive lasers all over the field. All of that doesn't matter, though, when compared with the Pedroia family ordeal taking place off the field.

“It speaks a lot to how tough he is mentally, but I think the beauty of this game is that it can act as an escape sometimes,” said Sox third baseman Mike Lowell. “You don’t want to downplay what’s going on, but you can get away from it a little when the game is going on. Once the game is over I know he’s refocusing his attention where it should be, but you’ve to be mentally pretty strong to play the way he has in his situation.

“We’re praying for him and wishing him the best. It can’t be an easy situation.”

Sometimes the Sox lose even when David Ortiz goes deep

In one of the stranger little factoids of the season, entering Thursday night the Red Sox were a perfect 10-0 in games when designated hitter David Ortiz smacks a home run. Big Papi hasn’t discriminated much in recent weeks: he’s just as likely to swing around on a fastball and jack a majestic home run to right field as he is to strike one out to the Death Valley depths in centerfield or sizzle an opposite field rocket as he did in the first inning on Thursday night.

Ortiz smoked a fastball off the left field tray over the Green Monster for a two-run homer – his 11th of the season and his 10th in his last 29 games – that also marked the 300th big fly of Ortiz’s career. 242 of those Ortiz bombs have come in a Red Sox uniform while building up his resume as the Greatest Clutch Hitter in Sox history, and Ortiz becomes the first player to hit his 300th homer in a Sox uniform since the Dreadlocked Artist Formerly Known as Manny Ramirez did it against the Angels back on Aug. 26, 2002.

“You guys saw my frustration at the beginning of the season when I was just trying to do some things and nothing was coming out," said Ortiz. "Now I'm just trying to relax and make things happen."

Maybe it’s time to shelf all of the “Greatest Bullpen of All-time talk" when it comes to the Red Sox

The Red Sox have been playing .500 ball for the last 10 games, and the seemingly indestructible, insurmountable Boston bullpen has taken four of the five losses during that stretch. While it’s certainly a byproduct of playing in an extended series of tight, one-run ballgames and can’t all be laid at the feet of the Sox relief corps, there are fissures beginning to develop in a once-solid foundation.

Left-handed batters are hitting .314 against sinkerballer Justin Masterson and left-handed swinging David Dejesus smashed the third home run of the season for a “southpaw” batter against the hard-throwing righty. The big blast came after Alberto Callaspo hooked a Manny Delcarmen change up in the decisive fifth and Ryan Freel battled off a sinker for a bloop hit to centerfield.

Three hits and one home run later, a two-run lead that Brad Penny had passed over to the pen after five innings went poof like Kaiser Soze. Again.

Between left-handed batters getting a solid look at the sinking mid-90’s fastball and pitches that have been left a little too high up in the zone, Masterson is sporting a 3.99 ERA out of the pen this season and has been one of Boston’s least effective relievers. Masterson finished Thursday night’s 8-6 loss with a defeat that dropped him to 3-3 on the season, and he’s flashed a 4.90 ERA in four games during the month of July. Ramon Ramirez has a 5.78 ERA in four games this month, and Takashi Saito has a 9.00 ERA in a pair of head-scratching appearances this month.

In all the bullpen has a 3.65 ERA in 24 2/3 innings during the month of June, which is a full ½ run higher than their AL-leading season total of 3.15 through the first half of the baseball season. Clearly the 'pen is still solid after a daunting first half workload, and will use the All-Star break to recharge their flagging batteries.

“They’ll be fine," said Ortiz. "They’ve been pitching their butts off. It’ll be good that we’ve got a break coming up so they can take some time off and come back in the second half and be strong."

You can mark Brad Penny down for less than seven innings and three runs or less EVERY TME HE PITCHES

Brad Penny has been remarkably consistent throughout this season after two rough early season outings, and Thursday night he matched his entire 2008 output with the Los Angeles Dodgers by making his 17th start of this season. Penny once again pitched five innings, he once again surrendered three runs and – you guessed it – he was once again saddled with a no-decision after handing a two-run over to Boston’s bullpen in the fifth frame.

Penny has never pitched as many as seven full innings this season, and has allowed three runs or less in nine of his last 10 starts – a pair of characteristics that have given the burly 30-year-old righty’s work precise consistency over the last two months.

That 10-start stretch began on May 20, and Penny has gone 3-2 with a 3.45 ERA in 57 1/3 innings over that span.

“I felt really strong,” said Penny. “I can’t remember a time where I’ve really been tired this year.”

Penny struggled on Thursday night to throw anything with a wrinkle in it and be effective mixing his pitches, and instead was forced to go with straight heat for a change. The 31-year-old is still featuring a 95-mph fastball that’s overpowering opposing hitters early in the game, and there’s every indication that the former Marlin and Dodger is working diligently to keep his right shoulder strong.

Thursday being Penny’s last start before the break, it’ll be interesting to see what the Red Sox do with a guy that’s a solid No. 3 or No. 4 starter on a contending team.

Penny’s pre-All-Star game starts since 2005 have seen him put up a 30-17 record in 407 2/3 innings with a 3.51 ERA (159 earned runs allowed) that helped him get selected to a pair of All-Star game appearances as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers – and ultimately helped him hang on for a pair of 16 win seasons in Dodger Blue.

But Penny’s post-All-Star break numbers aren’t quite so encouraging: a 15-14 record in 259 1/3 innings with a 5.00 ERA and a more than 30 point jump in terms of batting average against.

It’ll be interesting to keep a close eye on the way Penny throws the ball in the second half of the year starting with his first outing after the break, and if trade rumors begin once again kicking up with pitching-starved teams around baseball.

Fenway Park might be freezing over next week

A pair of baseball sources told WEEI.com today that the NHL Winter Classic between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers will be announced at Fenway Park on Wednesday afternoon. The announcement is expected to take place on the field where hockey-loving journalists like myself can imagine the strategic placement of a regulation rink inside the Lyric Little Bandbox, and daydream about covering the game on New Year’s Day in January.

BU and BC have been in agreement to play in another outdoor game a week later at Fenway Park, and it’s expected that the entire NHL schedule of regular season games will be released on the same day. Traditionally, the day after the MLB All-Star game has become a time to announce the NHL schedule – so the timing of the announcement makes all of the logical sense of the world for all parties involved.

Jason Bay, for one, might just make a special trip back to the Fens in January just to watch some hockey on the same field he’s blasting home runs out of this summer.

“I talked to one of my buddies that went to the one at Wrigley Field last year, and he said it was unbelievable,” said Bay when asked about the NHL Winter Classic. “It might be hard to get away right around the holidays and New Year’s, but that should be a blast. I'm going to try.”