Friday, September 30, 2011
Boston Red Sox: Dissecting the Debacle | Upper Deck Report is a trademark of Sport Media Report, LLC
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Do or Die Deable-Header
My cautious optimism for the Red Sox has quickly turned to bitter disdain and utter disgust after watching them participate in what could very well be the single most disastrous performance in the history of baseball.
Despite their putrid play, Tampa Bay wasn’t doing themselves any favors as they must’ve caught whatever it is the Red Sox have before leaving Boston earlier this week. They failed to capitalize on the numerous chances generously bestowed on them on behalf of Boston’s horrendous pitching staff. But after days of dodging potentially fatal bullets, the Red Sox postseason prospects took another big blow on Saturday when Jon Lester imploded on the mound en route to a 9-1 beat down in the Bronx and the Tampa Bay Rays disposed of the Toronto Blue Jays, trimming the Sox AL Wild Card lead to a dangerously slim 1.5 games.
It was an absolutely pitiful performance. It got so bad that I was switching over to the Animal Planet network to watch “Confessions: Animal Hoarding” to try and cheer up in between plays of the catastrophic second inning which ultimately led to Boston’s demise.
Boston’s new third baseman, Mike Aviles, failed to cover third base in a crucial situation setting the stage for a series of miscues. Carl Crawford celebrated his promotion in the lineup to the second spot by dropping a line drive with the bases loaded which allowed two runs to score. Then Derek Jeter, who hits home runs about once a month these days, managed to run into a Lester fastball depositing it over the Little League-length right field fence for a three-run dinger that capped off the scoring and sealed the Sox fate.
With the Sox playoff lives hanging in the balance, the Red Sox will turn to Tim Wakefield and John Lackey, of all pitchers, to face the Yankees in a day/night double-header. As if Red Sox fans didn’t have enough to worry about, that would be like the Celtics having to win one game to make the playoffs, holding on to a two-point lead in the final two minutes of a game and being forced to rely on Shaquille O’Neal and Rajon Rondo to shoot their free throws for them down the stretch.
As much as I hate even entertaining the thought, let alone writing it, if the Sox were to lose both games and the Rays were able to beat the Blue Jays again, Boston and Tampa Bay would be in a dead tie with three games to play. Ironically, the fate of the Boston Red Sox would lie in the Yankees’ hands as they would travel down to Tampa for the final three games of the season with home field advantage already wrapped up and the Red Sox heading down to Baltimore to face a team that just beat them three out of four games in Fenway.
The Yankees sole objective in that series would be to rest any ailing players and set their rotation up for success for the first round of the playoffs. This would most likely lead them to field a team of mostly obscure, completely inexperienced players, much like the team they exhibited on Thursday, a game in which the Rays defeated the Yankees 15-8. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Yankees decided to start Bartolo Colon, who has hasn’t won a game since July 31st and leads the league in pounds gained this season, for all three games of the regular season series finale. Needless to say, this would not be the optimal situation for the Red Sox.
The silver lining surrounding this dark cloud hovering above the Red Sox could be found in the form of Yankees’ starter A.J. Burnett. As brutal as John Lackey has been for Boston, Burnett has been equally inadequate and he is scheduled to pitch game one of the double-header, opposite Tim Wakefield. Although Wake he got his 200th win in possibly the most important game in his career, a victory in this game could be the most important for the Sox this season and would be an incredible encore for the ageless wonder.
The second game looks like a landslide in favor of New York on paper, but Red Sox/Yankee games often have a funny way of not working out according to plan. Hopefully this unpredictable trend continues for the nightcap, because the gap between Ivan Nova’s (3.62) and John Lackey’s (6.49) ERA is about as staggering as the difference in their salaries.
I wish I could offer up some comforting words or some ambiguous statistics that might instill confidence going forward, but the Sox pathetic performance has robbed me of that ability. It might not be a bad idea if you happen to wander across any spare farm animals on your property to offer them up to the baseball gods this morning. Or, if animal sacrifice isn’t really your thing, then stick to the more conventional superstitious activity of crossing your fingers, because it appears as though it’s going to take something supernatural for the Sox to avoid the biggest September collapse in baseball history. I could say that it can’t get any worse, but that would be the fifth time I’ve said that this week and I hate being wrong.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011
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