Creeping Into Range

With the wheels continuing to fall off the Tampa bandwagon (2-6 in their last eight games), Boston has slowly, steadily, come up right behind them. With Boston's convincing 10-1 win in Toronto last night the Sox are just 3.5 games behind the Rays for the AL wild card spot. And just five back of the Yankees for the AL East lead.

Sox Come Up Short

I don't like it when people complain about an umpire's strike zone as if it cost their team the game. There are always other, larger factors involved. But I think it is fair to say that in Boston's 3-2 loss to Toronto yesterday afternoon, Dale Scott sure didn't do Boston any favors late in the game.

Blown Away By Daisuke

Ummm...where has this Daisuke been hiding for the past 1+ years? I like this model; he pounds the strike zone and goes after hitters. He doesn't walk batters. And he makes it very, very easy for the Red Sox to blow past the Blue Jays 6-1 and go two games over .500 for the first time this season.

Walking To A Win

Well, last night's game did nothing to argue against the reputation Al East games have for being long. The first two innings in Boston's 7-6 win over Toronto took over an hour and twenty minutes thanks to control problems from both starting pitchers. But at the end of the day, Boston's pitching was better by just enough to grab the "W".

Clay Comes Up Big

Every pitcher has a team he loves to see. Roger Clemens enjoyed destroying the Royals (25-7 lifetime). Pedro salivated whenever he pitched against Seattle (13-1, 1.57 ERA, 0.854 WHIP). El Tiante? A perfect 9-0 lifetime against the Blue Jays.

Which fittingly leads us to Clay Buchholz. In his short career, Clay seems to enjoy pitching against Toronto more than any other team. He made that clear once again last night by leading the Sox to a 2-1 win over the Jays. The win pushed the Sox past Toronto into third place even though they are both at 10-11 (thanks, alphabetical order!) and they are three back of the Yankees for second place. Baby steps...

Slugging For Cover

The most important thing about yesterday's 13-12 win by the Patriots Red Sox over the Argonauts Blue Jays is that they did, in fact, win. They are now 9-11 on the season and sport a winning record on the road (4-3). They are a game back of the Jays for third and 5.5 back of the Rays.

Another good thing is that the Sox finally outhit their opponents for the first time in five games. And wonder of wonders, there were no errors committed in the field. But no one should look at this win and think that everything is better in Boston.

A Tale Of Two Games

Two games. Identical 7-6 scores. Boston was outhit by Baltimore in both games. Boston had an error in both games.

Boston won the game on Saturday. Boston lost the game on Sunday. But there was very little difference between the two.

U.G.L.Y.

Look, I know the wild card is clinched. But that's no excuse for basically lying down for a Jays team that hasn't won 90+ games since Bill Clinton's first year in office.

Roy Halladay is a hell of a pitcher, and the comment above is not intended to take away from his stellar performance last night. But the Sox rolled out the B-squad last night and Halladay chewed them up. Normally, not such a big deal. But the Sox are now riding a six-game losing streak with four games left until the post-season and I was thinking maybe it'd be nice to ride a winning streak into October instead. I'd have to do more research, but I'd wager that riding a big losing streak into the post-season tends to be a poor thing for the team in question.

More concerning than that, however, was the poor performance of Tim Wakefield. And now questions have to be raised about his ability to pitch going forward. He left after just three innings, allowing seven hits and five runs in the process. He has a bulging disc in his back that has been bothering him for a couple of months. At his age, you have to face the possibility that Wakes may not be able to overcome a physical condition like that. But that's a discussion for later. Right now, though, the immediate thing it creates is a discussion about the post-season roster.

Wakes is the kind of guy you can have as a starter/spot-starter/long-reliever/reliever in the post-season. But the important role would be the spot-starter/long-reliever. If he can't go, who fills that spot? Right now if Wakes can't go, I say it's either Byrd or Bowden. That's a hell of a choice to have to make. Either guy can give you a solid outing or bury you in the blink of an eye.

The upside is that his health issues do not affect the starting rotation. It's Lester, Beckett, Buchholz and Daisuke until further notice. All we need now are for these guys to produce.

I don't what the final four games hold for us. I'm guessing Tito wants to rest the regular gang as much as possible. And I get that and support that plan 100%. I'd just like to see the Sox win a couple of games to close out the year and head into the post-season on a positive note. Going in on a losing streak makes me nervous as hell.