Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Game 64 - Red Sox

Cardinals 8, Red Sox 7 (13)
Record: 36-28

Allow me to count the ways in which this Red Sox team is torturing me this season. I mean this in the best way possible, because I love this team, and believe in them, but when the evidence is stacked up, they're still 23-23 over the last 46 games. To wit:

1. They are never, ever, ever, out of a game, which makes them great to follow, but they seem to have a problem closing the deal. They're the ultimate baseball prickteases. Last night they trailed the Cardinals, 3-0, going into the bottom of the 9th, tied the game, but left the winning run on third. Then, after they fell behind, 5-3, in the 10th, they tied the game again, and had the bases loaded with 1 out. Again, they couldn't plate the winning run. Finally, in the 13th, the Cards took an 8-5 lead. The Sox scrambled back to 8-7, and had runners on first and second, but ran out of gas.

2. The Yankees have been abysmal over the last 41 games, stumbling along at 17-24 over that span, but the Sox haven't taken advantage of it. I don't think the Yanks are all that good this year, but they're like a vampire - I won't believe them dead until I see the stake through their heart. Playing .500 baseball while your chief rival flails about is not exactly putting your foot on their neck.

3. The bullpen stinks like 6 week-old cottage cheese left in a foot locker surrounded by gym shorts that haven't been washed for 11 months wrapped in that blanket that was used to smother the skunk that snuck into the basement - the same blanket that had been laying under the stairs, damp and musty, since you moved into the house 4 years ago. Actually, it stinks worse than that. And that, faithful reader, is the single biggest problem with this team. Bring me the head - and right arm - of Armando Benitez. Now.