Dirty Water: Sox Talk With the Thunderstick

Thunderstick:Damn--would have liked to have knocked more off the magic number this weekend, but let's face it--the Yanks are smoking right now and while we are playing decent, they would be making up ground on anyone. Heck, in the time that they ate up the 7 game wild card edge, we've actually added 3 games to our lead over Cleveland and Detroit, but the Yanks have closed 4 games on us in that time.

Bummer of a loss last night. Weird how that one home run changed the perception of the game. If Schill gets through that inning and leaves, even if we lose, we're saying "OK, but at least Schill is back, going 7 and giving up 2." Instead we're saying "ehhh--he was OK, giving up 4 in 6". The bats continue to hibernate against starting pitching. Anyway, should be a stressful two nights as we'll be going with Wake and Lester. I'd feel a lot better if Dice or Beckett were going.

dcat: I'll tell you what's driving me nuts about a Red Sox team about which we should be gushing given that prior to last night's game they had been on a roll and had looked pretty good: Dropping the first game of these series. How many has it been in a row? Three series now where we've dropped the first game? Five of the last six, something along those lines? In the regular season that is bad enough. But in the playoffs, and especially in the ALDS, not coming out ready to roll against a new team can be deadly. I'm still convinced that we could have beaten Chicago in 2005 had Game 1 not gone so badly (and had you not scheduled your wedding for the middle of the playoffs. Good going.)

The Yankees are simply on fire. And yet had someone said in February that we'd have a 6-game cushion in early August we would have been thrilled. But the way the Yanks have run through the last month or two is frightening. Still -- six games is a nice lead, and the Yankees have seen how hard it is to get over this hump. Like you, I wish that we could place a bit more faith in Lester or Wake to close out this series, but those guys have shown an ability to come through, especially Wakefield, so that I bet he has a good game because we need him to. I know that comment is practically the sort of voodoo I usually disavow, but I'm actually pretty comfortable with Wake coming down the stretch.

I hope also that Manny (and Ortiz) learned a lesson last night: Moss came to bat in our last hopes in what was Manny's spot in the ninth because Ramirez had gotten himself run for arguing balls and strikes. I don't want to be melodramatic and say that his ouster cost us the game, but it sure did make things that much tougher against a really good team. You never win when you argue balls and strikes. And I think that some umps are frankly sick and tired of the histrionics from the Sox' Big Two. Ortiz bitches the most, but Manny isn't far behind, and this is not a case where being right matters. We simply cannot afford to have Manny out of the game if he is not scheduled for a rest, especially for something as self-inflicted as getting tossed for arguing pitch location.

Looking ahead we have these two games against the Greater-Southern-California-Los Angeles-Anaheim-San Diego-Orange County-Angels-of-the-West-Coast, a day off, and then three at Baltimore and three at home against Tampa. We need to find a way to get one or both of these games out west and then get back to beating on teams we should be pummeling. At this point, all the Sox can do is take care of what is front of them and not worry about what is behind them.