The Red Sox are a lot like most other teams in major league baseball. We were reminded of that over the holiday weekend in Chicago.

We once again saw proof that, like just about everyone else, the Sox have some real questions about the back end of their pitching rotation.

It is clear that the hopes of this team rest on its top starters.

As of the Labor Day weekend trip finale on Monday, the Sox were 38-18 when Jon Lester or Josh Beckett started a game, 41-40 when everyone else starts. If you remove the 14-4 team record when the ailing Tim Wakefield starts, that "everyone else" stat drops to a woeful 27-36.

On Friday night, it was obvious that the Sox are still in search of a fifth starter. Painfully obvious. Paul Byrd is the latest to try his hand filling the spot, and couldn't make it out of the third inning against a White Sox lineup that has been shut out more than any other team in the American League. Byrd gave up seven runs on 10 hits while recording seven outs. A one-to-one run-to-out ratio is not good.

Junichi Tazawa, not long removed from Hadlock Field, was up and firing quickly, and he found himself in the game by that third inning.

He lasted longer than Byrd and got more outs, but he was only marginally better in a five-run, 3 2/3 inning performance.

Not coincidentally, Daisuke Matsuzaka is pitching on the same day as Byrd and Tazawa, and gave up only two runs (both on solo homers) that night pitching for Pawtucket. The trouble for Dice K, as always, was that his pitch count got very high very quickly and the team needs him to make one more start (a Class A playoff game) before he can try to help the big club once again.

On Saturday, Wakefield valiantly tried to return to the mound again, and for a while it looked like he couldn't get out of the first inning.

Yet he managed to recover from that rocky start (three runs scored in the first, and two more runners stranded in scoring position) to pitch six innings, giving up four runs.

It looked good on paper, but anyone watching Wakefield trying to cover first base in the sixth inning knows it would be risky to depend on him to deliver right now.

By the end of that second game, concern was creeping into Red Sox Nation once again.

Those fears were quickly calmed by Jon Lester on Sunday. Lester delivered when the Sox needed it most – seven innings of shutout ball while matching a season high with 122 pitches.

He became the first Sox lefty to record 200 strikeouts in a season, and he helped his team pick up a game on the other wild-card contenders.

Having great starters at the front of the rotation and lots of question marks at the back of it, puts the Sox in good company.

Even the best teams in baseball are scratching and clawing for Nos. 4 and 5 starters.

It's why playoff contenders like the Cardinals and Giants grabbed Boston castoffs John Smoltz and Brad Penny.

It's why the Yankees trotted out Sergio Mitre on Sunday afternoon and watched him give up 11 runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Yet, despite issues with at least two-fifths of the rotation, the Sox are a good bet to secure their sixth postseason berth in seven years.

Why? Because the marathon that is baseball has been reduced to a sprint.

You need four or five (or six or seven) starters to make it over the long haul.

The Sox have made it through most of that. With 25 games remaining, they can feel confident that they can win enough of them with Lester, Beckett, and a rejuvenated Clay Buchholz starting 13-15 of those games.

They also can feel good about their chances in a short series with Lester and Beckett at the top of the rotation.

As long as Beckett comes through (he lost Monday and hasn't won since Aug. 12), the Sox have co-aces who can match up with anyone.

Buchholz has arrived in time to give them a third starter...