01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, July 6, 2004

BY STEVEN KRASNER
Journal Sports Writer

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

At the midpoint of the 2004 season, the Boston Red Sox, featuring a $130-million payroll, were supposed to be in first place in the American League East, or at the very least challenging the Evil Empire, a.k.a. the New York Yankees, for the divisional lead.

The wild card? Let the small-market teams worry about trying to make the playoffs that way. This year, the goal wasn't just to make the playoffs as a reward for finishing second, it was to end the Yankees' stranglehold on the A.L. East crown.

But the Red Sox have now reached the midpoint of the season. Tonight's game against the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park will be Boston's 81st of the year, exactly half of the way into the 162-game regular-season schedule.

And a look at the standings shows the Red Sox to be one of baseball's most underachieving teams.

Boston is 8 games behind the Yankees, only 3 1/2 games ahead of the third-place Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The Sox aren't even leading the pack in the wild-card race, either. If the season ended today, Oakland and Texas would be tied for first place in the West Division, necessitating a special playoff. The loser of that game would win the wild card. Boston and the Chicago White Sox, both of which have a .538 winning percentage, would trail the playoff loser by three games.

Of course, the season doesn't end today. And while no one is conceding the division to the Yankees at this point, the key to any season, as noted by Boston general manager Theo Epstein over the weekend, is just to get into the playoffs, be it as a wild-card winner or a division winner. The last two World Series champions

-- Anaheim and Florida -- were wild-card entrants to the postseason.

So certainly there is ample time for the Red Sox to right their listing ship, even as the team licks its wounds from a disastrous, often ugly, 1-5 road trip that went through New York (0-3) before finishing up in Atlanta (1-2) over the holiday weekend.

And on one positive note, tonight will mark the first time all season that manager Terry Francona will be able to field the full team he was expecting to have when Boston convened for spring training in February.

Injuries robbed the Red Sox of shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and right fielder Trot Nixon for more than one-third of the season. By the time they returned, third baseman Bill Mueller was on the disabled list.

Tonight, Francona will have all of his big guns in an A.L. ballpark, where the designated hitter will be part of the lineup, unlike the series in Atlanta, where the pitchers batted because there is no DH in the National League.

Francona can only hope that the full lineup will help the Red Sox pull out of a prolonged slump of mediocrity (28-31 since May 1) because the schedule doesn't get any easier.

Oakland, which is in town for a three-game series, is leading the A.L. West by a half-game over the Rangers, who will follow the Athletics into Fenway for a three-game series that will bring the teams to the All-Star break.

Right after the break, Boston will visit Anaheim for a four-game set. The Angels are right on the Sox' heels for wild-card purposes, and they still are expected to challenge for the A.L. West crown.

First things first, though, says pitcher Curt Schilling, who just was named an All-Star for the sixth time in his career.

"We're going to be playing teams ahead of us in the wild-card (race), but we can't look even two days ahead," said Schilling after Sunday's 10-4 loss to the Braves.

"If we don't take care of the game we're playing that night, it won't matter who we're playing come August. We have to start playing consistent baseball. We're just not playing well enough right now. We have to start putting things together," said Schilling.

Kevin Millar is hoping a return to Fenway will help. Boston boasts the league's second-best home record, at 25-14.

"We just need to get back home and get some W's," said Millar. "This is a big test of character right now. It's easy to come to the field when you're winning every day. Now it's a gut check for us."

No one is facing a gut check more than starter Derek Lowe, who has crumbled in the face of adversity too often, including his implosion that turned a three-run lead into an eventual nine-run Atlanta outburst and a six-run fifth-inning deficit on Sunday.

But there have been positive signs. Garciaparra has been hitting the ball on the nose in almost every at-bat recently, even if his average is only .284. Nixon has started to hit the ball hard consistently, Mueller looked solid in his first three games back, and the duo of All-Stars David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez continues to provide serious thump almost every game.

The Sox will have their three best starters going against Oakland -- Tim Wakefield, Pedro Martinez and Schilling. And their bullpen finally has gotten some badly needed rest over the last few days.

"We have no alternative but to show up (tonight) and fight a little harder," said Francona.

The second half is around the corner, and it's gut-check time for the Red Sox. It wasn't supposed to be this way, but it is. And if the Sox don't start turning things around soon, it's going to be a very long and disappointing summer in Boston.