Are CRUCIAL as far as I'm concerned. If you look at the schedule starting today until the first Sox series, we've got some pretty favorable competition to play against (although a tough 9 game road trip). I think we have to go, at the very least 10-7 over those 17 games...if we do, we're then 6 games over .500 when the Pitching starts to come back and at that point we're over 4 weeks into Lee's 8 week injury (I won't let myself believe it will be 10). If we can go 12-5 it would be great...with our offense, and pitching, I'm not sure I can ask for more than that.