The Red Sox opened their season in March, with two in Tokyo against the A's.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

The traditional break between the first half and the second half of the regular season is here for the Boston Red Sox and the rest of the teams in the majors, even if it happens to be well beyond the mathematical halfway point.

And, as with most teams, Boston can look back on its first half and ponder whether the glass if half-full or half-empty.

It could have been better, it could have been worse. A few injuries here, a few injuries there. A few disappointments, a few surprises. A few peaks, a few valleys. Some things worked, some didn't.

The bottom line is that the Red Sox are 57-40, good enough for first place in the American League East, a half-game ahead of the surprising Tampa Bay Rays in the tough division. It was an exhausting 97 games for Boston.

The regular season started roughly a week earlier than normal, with spring training cut down shorter than normal because the Red Sox opened their season in Japan with a two-game series against Oakland on March 25 and 26.

Further adding to the fatigue factor felt by the Sox was that they played deep into October in 2007, winning their second World Series crown in four years.

Not that anyone was complaining about that, but the end result was a condensed offseason that fed into a regular season that took the team from spring training in Fort Myers, Fla., to Tokyo. Then it was off to the West Coast for exhibition games and two more regular-season games in Oakland, which were followed by a three-game series in Toronto before the Sox received their championship rings as part of a pregame ceremony for the Fenway Park opener on April 8.

What follows is a look back at the Sox' first half of the season:

Rookie Justin Masterson was a pleasant surprise filling in for Clay Buchholz.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

WHAT WORKED

For the most part, manager Terry Francona and pitching coach John Farrell were able to do a solid job of getting the most out of the starting pitching staff while mixing in the young (Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz and Justin Masterson), the old (Tim Wakefield), the infirm (Bartolo Colon), the ace (Josh Beckett) and the enigmatic (Daisuke Matsuzaka), with the old injured ace (Curt Schilling) unavailable.

The Sox organization, starting with general manager Theo Epstein, was able to give just about every starter some rest during the first half, either through a stint on the disabled list or by giving them an extra day or two between starts because of the depth in the rotation.

Boston was even able to plug in one rookie (Masterson) for another (Buchholz) when the Sox wanted Buchholz to work on a few things down in the minors, a luxury few other teams, if any, have had. All of which should make for a relatively rested rotation during the stretch run.

Jonathan Papelbon, meanwhile, made sure few leads disappeared once a game got to him.

Offensively, the Red Sox were able to stay in the race despite missing dependable run-producer Mike Lowell for a few weeks early and superstar slugger David Ortiz for a month and a half because of injuries.

They were able to do this because at various points in the season, different players carried the team. Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew especially come to mind, but there were times when Lowell and Kevin Youkilis chipped in. And while he wasn't as consistently dominant as he had been earlier in his career, Manny Ramirez contributed his share of big hits, as did minor-league callups Brandon Moss and Jed Lowrie.

There was one other circumstance that worked well for the Sox -- playing at friendly Fenway Park. Boston had homestands of 7-0, 7-2, 5-2 and 5-1 en route to a 36-11 home record. Only the Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay had more home wins.

Oh, and one other thing that worked? Playing Tampa Bay at home. Boston was 6-0 against the Rays at Fenway.

Red Sox middle relievers, like Javier Lopez, sometimes provided little relief.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

WHAT DIDN'T WORK

All too often, the one major first-half flaw was the bullpen, in particular the relievers setting up Papelbon.

Not all the time, mind you. And this probably can be said of any teams in the majors because, after all, who are your setup guys but pitchers who aren't good enough to start and aren't good enough to close.

But the key issue with the Sox' setup men was consistency.

One other circumstance that didn't work work so well for the Red Sox -- playing on the road. Boston was only 22-29 away from Fenway.

And one other thing that didn't work? Playing Tampa Bay on the road. Boston was 0-6 against the Rays at Tropicana Field, part of a larger concern, the Red Sox' 20-19 record against A.L. East teams.

J.D. Drew was the surprise American League Player of the Month in June.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BIGGEST SURPRISES

Drew's offensive explosion, which earned him the Player of the Month Award for June, came out of nowhere and had to rank as one of the team's biggest surprises.

Sure, a guy making $14 million a year, as Drew is, should be able to produce a month in which he batted .337 with seven doubles, two triples, 12 homers and 27 RBI. But those numbers out of Drew?

Until then, Drew had been an underachiever, but he came through in the clutch for the Red Sox, beginning his binge the day after Ortiz was lost because of a wrist injury, helping Boston stay afloat in the A.L. East as the Rays were surging.

Justin Masterson, who had not pitched above Double A before his first promotion, for a spot start on April 24 that went well, had two cups of coffee and then a one-month tour of duty as a starter for Boston. He acquitted himself well, fitting into the rotation without causing it to skip a beat, in going 4-3 with a 3.67 earned-run average.

And then there were two other players who, if not actually total surprises, blossomed as the Red Sox had hoped. They would be outfielder Ellsbury, the catalyst out of the leadoff spot, and left-hander Jon Lester, whose no-hitter against Kansas City on May 19 catapulted him into the role of the number-two starter behind Beckett. Lester is 7-3 with a 3.38 E.R.A.

Manny Delcarmen fell into this category, as well, contributing a dominant 16-game stretch out of the bullpen, though he took his lumps at times, too.

Hideki Okajima was a disaster when it came to allowing inherited runners to score.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS

The injury to Ortiz -- a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist -- had to rank as a major disappointment for the Sox, but from a performance standpoint, no one was more disappointing than setup man Hideki Okajima.

The left-hander, who came out of nowhere last season with a pinpoint fastball and a devastating changeup, was mostly brutal out of the bullpen, notably with runners on base.

On May 14, Okajima coughed up a game-losing grand slam to Baltimore's Jay Payton, the first man he faced. That made it 14 runners inherited, 11 inherted runners scored against Okajima, a woeful circumstance that caused Okajima's confidence to plummet and caused Francona, not surprisingly, to lose confidence in Okajima.

By June 2, Okajima already had blown five saves. Francona was reduced to keeping Okajima out of those types of situations, which had been Okajima's staple for the most part in his largely successful 2007 campaign. As a result, there was a lot of mixing-and-matching with the setup roles, with predictably mixed results.

Big Papi's absence, meanwhile, became more noticeable when the red-hot Drew finally tailed off. Runs became hard to come by, and that was a factor in the number of one-run games played by Boston.

While he was batting a mere .252 at the time of his May 31 swing in Baltimore that tore the sheath, Ortiz also had 13 homers and 43 RBI. Had Ortiz been in the lineup for the entire first half, the Red Sox no doubt would have a better record in one-run games (they are currently 14-16), or there may not have been as many one-run games.

And while these disappointments may seem to be a case of nitpicking, Ramirez suffered through prolonged power outages, Beckett had precious few dominant outings and Matsuzaka, despite his 10-1 record and 2.65 E.R.A., still hasn't become the consistent ace the Sox thought they were getting.

HIGH POINT

The Red Sox, buoyed by Drew's hot bat, buzz-sawed their way through Tampa Bay, Seattle and Baltimore to the tune of a 7-2 homestand in the first half of June that boosted the Sox' record to 42-27 and gave them a 2 ½-game cushion in the division.

LOW POINT

Boston dropped five in a row on the road from June 28 to July 2, including three straight to Tampa Bay en route to a 3-7 road trip that tumbled the Red Sox to a season-high five games out of first place.

Jon Lester no-hit the Royals on March 19.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

SINGULAR ACHIEVEMENTS

-Ramirez clouted the 500th homer of his career, a solo shot in Baltimore on May 31.

-Lester fired a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals on May 19 at Fenway Park, throwing a whopping 130 pitches in his nine-strikeout, two-walk gem.

-Youkilis established a major-league record for errorless games at first base, a streak that comes to an end at 238 games and 2,002 chances with an error on June 7.

SCUFFLES

Something was in the air in Fenway Park on June 5.

Manny Ramirez, apparently irritated by Youkilis' tantrums after failed at-bats, exchanged heated words with the Sox infielder and threw a punch at him in the Sox' dugout on June 5, having to be pulled away by Tim Wakefield and trainer Paul Lessard.

Rays' ace James Shields drilled Coco Crisp on the thigh with a fastball as retaliation for a hard slide and hard feelings left over from the previous night's game. Crisp charged the mound and a nasty bench-clearing brawl erupted in the middle on the diamond, with fists flying.