Red Sox Reeling

Two games up and two games down in this four game set, as the Yankees have defeated the Red Sox in two straight, insuring at least a split in the series. The Yanks blew out the Sox in game one then outlasted them in 15 innings last night. Game two was especially demoralizing because the Sox bats continued to struggle as they wasted 7 shutout innings from Josh Beckett and 7 more from the bullpen.

The Sox just can't seem to hit with RISP. They're not stringing hits together to get any rallies going. The Yanks simply outlasted them until the Sox had to throw out AAA call up, Junichi Tazawa. He would have lost the game earlier in the 15th if not for a highlight reel catch by J.D. Drew. Then with two out and Alex Rodriguez at the plate, well that just wasn't fair for the poor rookie.

Meanwhile, the John Smoltz experiment seems to be over in Boston. The future HOFer was designated for assignment today. There's still a chance that the Red Sox may bring him back as a reliever if he decides to take a pay cut. I'm not sure if that would work. I feel bad for Smoltz, not just because he wasn't much of a help to Boston's rotation, but because he's had a great career and this is no way for him to go out. Seldom do athletes, hall of fame caliber or not, get to retire on their own terms.

As of now, Boston's plight is this. They are 4.5 back of the Yankees and need to salvage a split in the series to even have a chance at the division going in to September. In the rear view mirror lurk the Texas Rangers, who are now only a game back of the Sox in the wild card. They sent a starter down to minors that they were depending on for the stretch now that Dice-DL is out of the picture for the moment. Oh, and they've forgotten how to hit. Yeech. And might I add, blarg!