The Connells

Games 84 through 87 - Red Sox

Tigers 9, Red Sox 2
Tigers 3, Red Sox 2 (11)
Tigers 6, Red Sox 5
Record: 53-34

Boy, does the All-Star break come at a good time for the suddenly broken-down Boston Red Sox. The good guys limped into the hiatus, physically and metaphorically, dropping a tough set to the very, very good Tigers. With Tavarez and Gabbard getting the ball in the first pair of games, winning this series was going to be a stretch, but it would have been nice to slink out of Motown with at least a single scratch. Ah well, at least they kept their lead in the double-digits - the psychological trauma of a sub-10 game lead might've played nasty games with my head over the next three days.

Not many words for me today - this'll be a loooong week at the rockyard for yours truly. I'll try to smash together a season-in-review sometime before the break ends. Here's the synopsis - great pitching, especially out of the bullpen, adequate offense trending towards worrisome, a number of key question marks entering the dog days, and a looming sense that the Yankees have much better ball left in them.

-------

Just a real quick addition here, and a tip of the cap to Joy of Sox for reminding me that I wanted to mention this. The Sox made 4 cross-country trips in 34 days beginning in early June. They're 16-16 over that timespan. They looked for all the world this weekend in Detroit like a tired, bedraggled team, and there's a really good reason for that. I'm even more inclined to cut them some slack. They start the second "half" of the season with an 11-game homestand and only make one more trip to the West Coast all year. After August 10, they won't get any farther from Boston than Tampa.