This is [...] ridiculous! The Red Sox are officially PATHETIC. The pitchers can't hold ANY lead. No starter can hold anyone to fewer than four runs. If they happen to hand the bullpen a lead,THEY are giving it up faster than Anna Benson after smelling perfume on her husband's jersey. And now that Ortiz is getting walked every time so that Manny can ground into a lazy double-play, the team's batting average can't be hovering far above .075!!
So, I'll tell you exactly what's going to happen - Mark my Words!
By the end of the day, this Monday, August 21, the A.L. East race will be officially over. That's because the Yankees will be finishing off a 4-1 pasting of the Red Sox for the critical 5-game series at Fenway Park. If you do the math, this is the equivilent of a 3-game sweep.
Here's exactly how it will go down:
Friday afternoon will be exciting. The crowd will be into it. It will be a close game and the Sox may even have a late-game lead. But the Yankees hitters will eventually get to Boston's pitching staff and squeak out a 1 or 2 run victory.
Friday night will be a joke, just because Jason Johnson is pitching. Yankees blowout.
Saturday, the Sox will be so deflated after getting swept in the doubleheader, that they won't show up and lose by 4 or 5 runs. (A 1-0 game will turn into a 4-0 game when Beckett gives up a 3-run dong to HGHiambi in the 7th. I'm predicting a 5-1 final.)
Sunday will be toughly fought between Schilling and Mussina but the Sox won't give Schilling any run support and Mussina will pull out another one of his Fenway gems for a 2-1 victory.
Monday, the Sox will win - for no other reason than the fact that it makes no sense. With Tubby Wells on the mound and the Sux now facing an 8 1/2 game defecit in the division, they'll somehow salvage one game when it won't really matter any more.
So at the end of the day, they'll be 7 1/2 games out and, believe me, the division race will be officially over.
On Tuesday, Varitek wil begin light conditioning and Wakefield will start some long-tossing.