With the Olympics dominating every cable channel I seem to turn to this week, I offer this analogy: Watching the Red Sox over the last seven days has been like trying to eat Jello with chopsticks.
What turns out to be the most frustrating part: EVERYONE, and I mean everyone, is to blame. The bullpen has trouble holding onto 10 and 12 run leads, the "stopper" Josh Beckett could barely get out of the first inning yesterday, a rain-out Friday night that didn't get called until 8:30 (show me the meteorologist who thought there was ANY chance they were going get that game in and and I'll acknowledge the Manny trade was a great deal for the Dodgers), and when you get the pitching performance you expect (did you think Paul Byrd was going to pitch 8 innings of shut-out baseball?), no one, but no one can get a clutch hit.
For the frustrations this week, I blame the front office and grounds crew for not calling Friday's game early in the day, the Sox hitters for not doing what they normally do, and the pitching staff for giving up more runs in a seven day period than there were people in the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.
The only truly bright spot from the past few (well, more than a few) games has been Hideki Okajima. Very quietly and somewhat under the radar, he has pitched effective innings; even when he loaded the bases, he got out of it (that seems to be a Japanese-pitching thing to do!).
But as bad as this week was, I am still optimistic. I still stand by my prediction that the Red Sox will win the American League East, and that the Tampa Bay Rays will fall apart in September and not make the playoffs. The Sox play the Rays six more times before the season is over (three at Fenway and three at the Trop). I fully expect the Sox to win 5 of those 6 games.
Honestly, the only team that worries me over the final stretch of the season are the Toronto Blue Jays. When you include the make-up game on September 13th, they will play the Red Sox ten times in the month of September (who makes these schedules!?!?!?). Forget about the Yankees and the Rays, the Sox need to do some major scouting of the Blue Jays in the next week.
What the Red Sox really need to do is what you do when you have a bowl of Jello and only chopsticks to eat with: pick up the bowl and slurp it all down. Don't worry about it being pretty, just get it done.
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For everyone who has tickets to the day game on September 3rd and expected to see history, Mother Nature owes you a refund. The Red Sox are seven games from breaking the Major League Baseball record for most consecutive sell-outs, set by the Cleveland Indians when they opened their new ball park.
It looked like the Sox were going to tie that record against Baltimore on September 2nd and break the record during a rare mid-week day game on September 3rd. Considering both the Orioles and the Sox have the next day off (it is not a day game to allow for an early flight out of town for either team), you have to wonder if the game on September 3rd is a day game because it was the day the record would be set? Were there big plans for some kind of ceremony (that couldn't be done at night)? Do they have Zhang Yimou (director of the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony) waiting and on retainer for the big event?
No word from the Red Sox, but I wouldn't be shocked if the day game became a night game now that the game will only tie the record, and not break it.
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