Saturday, August 27, 2005

One and a half...and shrinking...

Never would I have thought being in first place could feel so hopeless. Sox have lost 3 of their last 4, to the two worst teams in the AL Central; even their one win, a 9-8 slugfest, was hardly convincing. When you can't beat the Detroit Tigers even when you score 8 runs, you know you're in trouble. Hopefully this is just a rough patch, but we'll see. I'm tempted to declare the season over, but I'll give them a few more games. I mean, you can't call a first-place team out of contention...can you?

The bullpen scoreless-less streak is up to 21 games. Keep it up, boys!

Papelbon's been hit, hard, his two times out of the bullpen. Have hitters figured him out, or is he just better as a starter? Given that three of our current five starters are shaky at best, I'd like to see him get one more chance starting a game.

Meanwhile, the Yankees scored 5 in the bottom of the 9th to beat the suddenly-not-so-pathetic Kansas City Royals. Seriously, when was the last time the Sox went into the bottom of the ninth a couple runs down and you thought they might pull it off? June?

6 comments:

  1. The Red Sox do NOT have the pitching staff that's good enough to play in October. It's tough to even watch them. And this is against mediocre teams. Face it, downright BAD teams. Foulke was hit by a single A team. Who knows about him. It's going to be tough reading the Boston sports pages. I might even skip them.

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  2. Good idea skipping the sports pages today. I have not peeked yet, but I'm sure the CHB is going nuts this morning.

    Of course I am a glutton for punsihment and won't be able to resist.

    And as bad as the Sox have looked especially in comparison to that other team, the past few years they have been amazingly resilient. They will rise to the occassion today and they way the Yanks season has been going, they will stumble today.

    That does NOTHING to help the sox woes long term, but that has been the way it goes lately.

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  3. I hope you're right X. I won't be watching today's game though -- I'll be at Dodger Stadium, to watch the Clemens-Weaver matchup. Which should be pretty cool.

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  4. As far as the question on whether a first place team can be counted out of it, makes me think of Earl Weaver who once was asked about the O's chances of catching the Sox when they were in second place (75 maybe?).

    Weaver said of his team which was trailing by a handful of games - "if we win the rest of our games, its going to be real tough for the Sox to keep their lead."

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  5. Nice - Remlinger just DFA's. Called up Alvarez.

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  6. Flipping throught the Extra Innings package and stopped by the Dodgers game - and while it is very cool that Earl is there, Fox is doing something pretty cool for today's broadcast - they are reenacting what it was like 50 years ago for a TV broadcast. No replays. No graphics. Only using 3 cameras, no zooms. Black and White. Of course the picture is crystal clear (i.e., no static). Of course Scully is a gem and I would gladly watch games he is calling any time.

    And apparently it is scorching hot at Dodger stadium, so that makes two Sundays in a row Earl will be sweating it out in LA at baseball games.

    Could be a good game - Weaver has gone 17 straight starts of 6 or more innings and has pitched surprisingly well after the break. Although probably not much of a suprise given that he is a free agent at season's end.

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