Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Game 143 - Red Sox
Bone Picking

Devil Rays 5, Red Sox 2
Record: 86-57

A Laurel and a Hardy handshake this morning to:

1. The Washington Post's Michael Wilbon stretching his prolific talent to craft a penetrating and completely original column about...wait, it's a good one: how the Red Sox and Cubs are cursed. Splendid effort, Michael. Mail-it-in hacks all over the country salute you this fine day. Dan Shaughnessy's on top of his desk applauding, mostly because you probably sold another dozen copies of The Curse of the Bambino for him.

2. The New York Mets, for their brilliant trade of Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano. As Whit no doubt knows, Zambrano's on the shelf. As he may or may not know, Kazmir shut the Sox down last night, tossing 6 innings of 3-hit ball at the AL's best offense. At least Rick Peterson's a genius. Too bad he's going the way of the dodo as soon as Art Howe gets a haircut from the Mets' management.

3. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays, for growing a spine - as predicted in this space last week - against the Sox after laying down in a thumb-sucking, pillow-cuddling, make-it-stop-mommy 4-game disaster against the Yankees last week.

Losing 3 of 5 to Seattle and Tampa, coupled with the Yankees' semi-resurgence, puts the Sox 4 back of New York with 19 to play. The division's not over-the-horizon lost, but it just got harder. A letdown of sorts was to be expected in the wake of the Sox blazing run through August and early September, but the good guys need to snap to quickly and remember that they haven't won anything yet. Tonight would be a good time to jump right back on that Good Times Express, because the alternative makes my face hurt.