Dirty Water: Sox Talk With the Thunderstick

dcat: In our last installment I wrote that we would be happy with a 5-2 week. But we had the chance yesterday to pull off the sweep against the Rays and to cap off a 6-1 week and what would have been a 9-1 run and the bats just did not show up. Still, let's assume for a minute that we have hit and survived the worst rough patch of the season. And let's assume that the trade deadline will come and go without a blockbuster. I know there are rumors that we might get Jermaine Dye, a nice acquisition if the price is right, but I am going to assume there is not a race-shifting trade coming down the pike. What that means is that we remain in the catbird seat, we are back to having the best rotation in the league, and the Yankees will appear larger in the rear view mirror than they actually are until they actually do recede and even the most paranoid among us can cease to concern ourselves with them.

Look: I'd like to hit more. I'd like to see us make a couple of comebacks in the late innings. But the reality is that we have lost twice in the last ten games. Once was a 1-0 shutout loss to the Indians the day after we had shut them out by the same score. Such a defeat may augment the worries about hitting, but it reaffirms our pitching capability. The other loss was to a Tampa team we had swamped this year, and realistically they were probably more desperate than we were needy, and the odds were that we were not running an 18-0 on them in 2007.

The week that follows will provide an interesting, and if we handle it well, perhaps decisive, test. The Orioles are decidedly not the same team that they were in April and May and they appear set to play the role of spoiler for the remainder of the season. We get them at home for three games. Then we have Seattle and the Angels out west. Seattle sadly swept us when I was in the Emerald City and in attendance back at the end of June. Anaheim is a chic choice to win the whole damned thing. This homestand followed by an immediate west coast trek should tell us a great deal about whether or not the remainder of the summer will be nail-biting time or a coronation for a team that, choppy as it has played from our blinkered myopic perspective, has spent a good hunk of the season with the best record in baseball.

Thunderstick: Well, despite a pretty lousy loss yesterday where the Sox got shut down again by their nemesis Scott Kazmir (nice trade there Mets fans!) the Sox are 8-2 in their last ten and have established an 8 game lead over NY. It's funny how the season twists and turns. At the beginning of the year we circled August as the toughest month of the year with a lot of games on the road, a west coast trip and teams like Anaheim and the White Sox on the schedule. About a month ago we said "doesn't look too bad with the ChiSox not really showing up this year". Today, it looks a lot tougher because rather than rolling over, the O's are playing good baseball and we've got a ton with them. So clearly, this is the month that will decide whether going into September we can start thinking about getting the rotation set and getting guys some rest, or if we are going to let the Yanks in and give them a chance.

The one big thing this week is obviously the trade deadline. I keep seeing Teixeira going to Atlanta (that's fine--move him to the NL rather than an AL contender) but it looks like there aren't a lot of players of any kind of caliber that are going to move. Thus, the most important acquisitions in the AL likely belong to the Sox and the Yanks with Schilling and Hughes coming back. I'd be more than happy to see most teams stand pat as we go through the deadline--we have the best record in baseball through a bit over 100 games, so if everyone stands pat, no reason to think that that would change over the last 60. Then we can see what Schill's got for us for the rest of the year. Hopefully it's enough bury the Yanks once and for all for the year.