Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Games 112 - 118 - Red Sox

Red Sox 4, Angels 2
Red Sox 9, Angels 3
Orioles 10/4, Red Sox 4/2
Red Sox 6, Orioles 4
Orioles 5, Red Sox 3
A's 4, Red Sox 0
Record: 68-50

Thank God I was drunk for the past 6 days, because I would have been one pissed off mofrackie if I had to watch the Sox self-destruct while sober. I'm beginning to get irrational, which is what happens when a really good team craps itself against a mediocre club like the Orioles. I didn't actually watch any of these games, except the 5-3 loss to Baltimore (in which the Sox raised hopes by loading the bases in the 9th before dashing them on Nomar's wild swing on strike 3). In hindsight, that was a good thing, because watching 3 losses in 4 games to the O's would likely have driven me to the destruction of something valuable.

The Sox are 5-8 in their last 13 games - roughly since the trading deadline when they ostensibly improved themselves. They blew an opportunity to gain ground in the division, as the Yankees have been a pedestrian 7-6 over the same span. As I posted earlier, management has done its job - now it's on the players to do theirs. Since I've been away from modern communication means for a while, I don't really have any objective measures of the team's failings. That said, Derek Lowe needs to get his head out of his ass, Jeff Suppan must show that his first two outings with the team are an anomaly, the offense has to wake up and regain the groove that propelled the Sox through July (this means you, Manny, Walker, and Millar), and the defense must remember what the leather things on their non-throwing hands are, and how they are to be employed.

44 games left, and a dead heat with the A's for the Wild Card, three behind the Yankees (and Mariners). The Sox are eminently capable, but they need to get their collective heads out of their collective asses and put together a solid string of games. Yesterday's was the first of 14 straight against Oakland and Seattle. Anything worse than 7-7 may well be catastrophic. And yes, I'm back on the ledge again.