The conversations have already sprung up all around the Red Sox in the final month of baseball.

Will Jon Lester wind up seizing the ball in Game One of the playoffs if Josh Beckett continues to look so Un-Beckett-like in September? Will the Sox continue to roll out their postseason dominance against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim as the two teams appear headed for a crash course to play each other in the Division Series once again?

Will it be Jason Varitek or Victor Martinez that ends up behind the plate once the playoff bullets start flying?

All relevant questions of course, but they only become pertinent if Boston qualifies for an AL playoff berth for the sixth time in the last seven seasons – an outcome that’s still very much in question at this point in the race.

The Red Sox were rolling before they headed into US Cellular Field in Chicago this weekend, and then promptly dropped a pair of mostly lifeless games to a White Sox team that seemed to pack up its show when they sold off assets like Jim Thome and Jose Contreras prior to Sept. 1. On Friday night Boston’s patchwork starting pitching took them out of the game early, and Saturday afternoon it was the offense’s turn to be mesmerized by the multiple pitch looks of Gavin Floyd in a 5-1 loss (recap).

The White Sox put up three quick runs against hobbled 43-year-old Tim Wakefield, and Floyd conversely took a perfect game into the sixth inning before Nick Green broke up the zero party with a smoked single to left field. So the Boston bats finally broke the ice, but all they could manage against some overpowering Chicago pitching was three hits and a single run on a Jason Bay solo home run in the eighth inning.

"He carved us up. Slider, cutter, fastball,” said Francona to reporters when talking about Floyd. “He had everything. The time of the day when it's hard to see and the way he pitched, he overwhelmed us.”

Luckily for Boston, the Texas Rangers also dropped a 5-4 game to the Baltimore Orioles and remain two games behind the Sox in the AL Wild Card race – but the Texas Cowpokes had previously captured four wins in a row and stand neatly within striking distance of Boston.

Conventional thinking was that the inexperienced Rangers would pack up and give way in the standings when the going got tough during the month of September, but the Sons of Nolan Ryan clearly aren’t going anywhere.

The Sox are going to have to battle and scrounge their way to a Wild Card berth – with the AL East division long gone and hard to find at 8 ½ games back – and likely won’t even get a chance to properly set up for the playoffs because of the down-to-the-wire competition. The Sox might not even be able to give Josh Beckett that quick September rotation breather that he appears to need badly, and there’s every chance Sox manager Terry Francona won’t be manipulate his ideal playoff rotation while battling the Rangers for wild-card pole position. It was that kind of battle that got Boston off on the wrong foot during the 2005 playoff loss at the hands of the very same White Sox, and it’s something Boston is hoping to sidestep if possible.

Those are all issues for another day, however, because right at this very moment an experienced, seasoned Sox crew is embroiled in a dog fight with the Rangers for a wild card spot, and that doesn’t appear likely to change anytime soon.

Here are four other things we learned from Saturday’s defeat to the mighty Gavin Floyd:

MARK KOTSAY STILL HAS PLENTY TO GIVE TO A PLAYOFF-CALIBER TEAM

One of the moves that the Sox were hesitant to make at the trade deadline was the pre-deadline deal that sent the versatile Kotsay to the Windy City in exchange for September call-up outfielder Bryan Anderson. Kotsay was dealt before the Sox pulled the July 31 trigger on Victor Martinez, and it was thought that Boston would be much too left-handed hitter heavy if they potentially stayed with both Adam LaRoche and Mark Kotsay off the bench.

So Kotsay was designated for assignment on July 24 and then traded away from Boston to Chicago just days later. There was a clear logical line of reasoning for the front office to make the trade and bring on the right-handed hitting Anderson, but the Sox – in essence if not quite in directly sequential moves – traded away a useful player in Kotsay, who could play first base and all three outfield spots competently and replaced him with a pure defensive first baseman in Casey Kotchman.

Kotsay didn’t waste any time making an impression on his old teammates this weekend, and the 33-year-old outfielder – and Francona favorite – smashed home runs in each of the first two games of the current series against his former team. Kotsay also made a nice running catch of a Kevin Youkilis drive to the warning track in the top of the fifth inning that saved extra bases for Chicago, and showed off his still above-average outfield defense.

Kotsay is hitting .264 with three home runs and 12 RBIs combined, and has two of his home runs and 8 of his RBIs with the White Sox since arriving in the July 29 trade with Boston.

TIM WAKEFIELD IS GUTTING IT OUT TO PITCH

The 43-year-old threw awkwardly to first while fielding a first-inning bunt and also hobbled around while trying to cover first on a slow roller to the right hand side of the infield, but Wakefield was able to function for a workable six innings. The knuckler wasn’t nearly as flutteringly hyperactive as it was during his seven innings of shutout ball in his first start back from the 15-day disabled list on Aug. 26, but the elder statesman settled down nicely after allowing three quick runs in the bottom of the first inning.

Wakefield allowed only a single run and three hits over his final five innings of work, and appeared just mobile enough to handle everything around the mound. The true test will come for Wakefield and the Sox, though, when the 43-year-old wakes up on Sunday morning and tests his achy back after a full day of pitching.

The Red Sox are still searching for No. 4 and No. 5 starts to stabilize things in the Boston rotation moving forward, and Wakefield will get every chance to stake his claim to one of those spots should his back condition either plateau or continue to improve.

“I'm not feeling 100 percent right now, but hopefully this thing will get even better,” Wakefield told reporters about the back condition he’s pitching through.

The knuckleballer has already admitted that surgery is a likely possibility for his back woes following the season, but it appears Wakefield is going to take the place of Mike Lowell for the “gritty veteran clenching his teeth through a painful injury” award this postseason.

ALEX GONZALEZ NEEDS SOME REST EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE

The defensively-gifted shortstop had started every single game for the Red Sox since returning to Boston in a waiver deal with the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 17, but he finally received a well-deserved day off on Saturday. Gonzalez has been a pleasant surprise offensively thus far in his return to the American League, and is hitting .282 with three home runs and 8 RBIs in 17 games for the Sox.

That’s 17 consecutive games headed into Saturday afternoon, and fellow shortstop Nick Green ended up making the start for the Sox. Green broke up Gavin Floyd’s perfect game with a single in the sixth inning, and then was pinch-hit for by Casey Kotchman later on in the contest.

Chris Woodward came on to play shortstop in the final inning of Saturday’s loss and gave Gonzalez a true day off in every sense of the word.

“He's been just what we expected,” said Francona to reporters. “It shouldn't be a surprise because he's always been that good. We've seen it in person. We've seen it from afar, and now we're seeing it in person again. It's such a stabilizing factor. When you hit it that way, you're out. He's one of the best I've ever seen.”

JASON BAY IS NOW ONLY THREE RBIs AWAY FROM A SELECT GROUP OF RED SOX

Bay supplied the only offensive damage during Saturday’s loss when he powered a home run to deep centerfield, and has now smashed 11 home runs and knocked in 23 RBIs in slightly less than 100 at bats since Aug. 1. It’s been a nice bounce back period for Bay, who is on pace for 38 home runs and 118 RBIs when the regular season is finished.

The free-agent-to-be is also on the cusp of joining a very exclusive club with the Red Sox, as he’ll become the fourth Sox outfielder to produce a 30 home run, 100 RBI season for Boston.

Once the 30-year-old Bay locks up his second straight 100 RBI season – and his fourth in the last five seasons – he’ll join Ted Williams (six times), Manny Ramirez (five times), Jim Rice (three times) and Carl Yastrzemski (twice) as the only Red Sox outfielders to ever put together the benchmark 30, 100 seasons in Boston.