I probably wasn't the only Red Sox fan who, upon turning on last night's game after the first inning and seeing the 3-0 score, knew that the Sox had already lost. Gone are the days when the Sox would patiently work on the starting pitcher, scoring a run or two, but waiting to pounce on the relief pitching. No, if the Sox starting pitching is less than stellar, the game quickly becomes out of reach. It says something to you that the disenbalmed corpse of Scott Podsednik was the Sox best hitter yesterday.
The problem is that the Sox are just not that good. As i've been saying for a while now, they're an average team at best, with average starting pitching and a few above average bats. I'm sure they'll pull off a few more winning streaks along the way, but without Lester, Beckett and Buchholz pitching like aces - and they aren't - this team as constructed is going nowhere. In fact, Lester's performance is probably the most disappointing aspect of this season. We're talking about a guy who led the AL in strikeouts two years ago with 9.7. This year, he's only averaging 6.5 and is looking rattled every time a runner gets on base against him.
So where do we stand? They've lost seven of their last eight games and are 6.5 games out of 1st. The excitement of their last winning streak is gone and they've become boring to watch again. I'm hoping that they'll turn it around, but at the moment don't see any signs of them doing so.
How about you? Are you keeping the faith? Or being depressingly realistic like me?
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