All phases of the Red Sox have been terrible lately. Our bats have been relatively quiet and even when they produce runs, our pitching gives up so many runs we still lose. Our bullpen has consistently blown leads, including Papelbon and Aceves who were our only relievers who were outstanding all year. Our starting pitching going into the season had some question marks but with the way Beckett returned to form, most fans felt great about our chances of making a deep postseason run. Then we lost Dice-K, Buchholz, and Beckett just recently came back from injury. Two million dollar man Bobby Jenks has been no where in sight and joins many other off-season acquisitions that Theo Epstein wishes he could have back. Guys like John Lackey and Carl Crawford have plain out sucked. I still don't know why we signed Lackey in the first place. The guy was never a dominant pitcher and has always gotten shelled at Fenway Park, usually at the hands of the Red Sox. His mole just isn't scaring hitters anymore. I think it's beginning to scare himself.
Sox fans, up to yesterday, still had belief that if we make the playoffs that we will have a clean slate and anything can happen. We still have two top pitchers in Josh Beckett and Jon Lester and we could find a way to win. However, Lester got rocked yesterday by the Yankees and was chased after 2 2/3 innings. Beckett may think he is our ace, but we all know Lester is the true number one for the Red Sox. If he can't even go six innings who can? Even if he does go six or seven innings come playoff time, why should we trust that the bullpen can hold the lead assuming he has it?
If the Red Sox do make the playoffs, they will most likely face Justin Verlander and the Tigers. Verlander is having an MVP type season with 24 wins so far. He is the first pitcher since 1990 to have that many wins. When he pitches, it is almost guaranteed that the Tigers will win. So if we do face the Tigers, you can almost chalk up game one for the Tigers. Should we just start a bum pitcher and save our "aces" for game two and three? Does that give us the best chance of winning? All of this is predicated that the Red Sox make the playoffs which is no where near a guarantee. Currently the Sox have a slim 1 1/2 game lead over the surging Rays with a week to play. The Sox bullpen had to go six innings yesterday against the Yankees and now we have a double header today with Wakefield and Lackey pitching. Of course I want the Sox to make the playoffs but I don't even know why. They haven't shown that they deserve to play in October and I definitely do not want to see them get swept by the Tigers. Let's hope that they somehow pull it together and show the world that they belong in the playoffs, even if they aren't "the greatest team ever."
Perhaps what they need is a good ole fashioned brawl to unite the team. What better time to do it then to fight the Yankees in Yankee Stadium with a week to go. If you're going to go down like this, at least go down swinging, literally. Get a little dirty, feisty, do whatever you have to do to get riled up and unite the team. Francona needs to light a fire under their asses because he is just as much to blame for this collapse as anyone. He has done a poor job of managing the ball club and elected to start rookie pitchers during the most critical time of the year. It's time for him to focus more on winning and less on packing his jaw full of bubble gum and chew. Let's go Sox, lets make the playoffs, not history.
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