Click the play button below to hear Sean's comments, recorded this morning. Sean reflects on the first 81 games of the season and considers what some of the big hurdles will be for the Red Sox in the second 81.

Here are some excerpts from Sean's comments:

The club's biggest concern:: "I think in the regular sseason it's going to be mostly about getting the seventh and eight inning in the bullpen taken care of. ... Certainly if they get more innings like they did out of Manny Delcarmen in the eighth last night, where he just overpowered people, some of those issues will go away."

On next week's stern test: "Starting Monday, seven road games against I think the two teams that they really are focused on, at least in the short term, for the division: the Rays and the Yankees. ... The Rays continue to hang with the Red Sox halfway through and show that they're a legitimate contender, and the Yankees -- although they have not had the best week -- have been able to creep a little closer and get above .500, and I think show people that they're still in the conversation for the second half. So playing those two teams back-to-back to kind of wind down the first half will go a long way I think in setting things up for post-All Star break."