BS Man There Ain't Nobody In The Street
This entry was posted on 9/20/2007 7:58 AM and is filed under Rant.
OK so I need a moment to just talk. I don't care if anybody reads this, but I've got nobody to vent to right now at 8 am yet all I've been thinking about is how did the wheels come flying off. It's an awful feeling and one I haven't experienced all season yet knew was coming after the first blown lead folowing the trade deadline. See up until that point the team chemistry was at an all time high and their lead was higher than I've ever seen it. You convince yourself that there is know way THIS team is going to blow it. The pitching alone was going to keep them in it. Problem is that the pitching is really what's let this team down so much to the point that one of our two locks (Papelbon) has obviously said "Screw it. I'm tired of watching these guys blow leads."
I've honestly felt that this year Tito has actually managed the team better than he has during his entire career. I got to witness what Joe Torre had during the 90's when he was able to run a consistent line-up night after night. It's not hard when you can keep them playing together and while Drew, Manny, Coco and Lugo were struggling for most of the first half you had Lowell, Youk and Papi picking them up. That's how a team plays.
Now all of a sudden Gagne comes into the mix and it screws up the chemistry and the entire thought process behind the winning formula. It took a little while, but with the exception of Delcarmen, Lopez and Tavarez (who is on the list by default that Tito rarely and inexplicably runs him out anymore) the entire bullpen has fallen apart. I think with a little more thinking we could have avoided some of these disasters. The formula was simple; Delcarmen/Timlin, Oki, Papelbon. Adding another late inning guy just destroyed everything, especially Oki's confidence. He's not tired. He's a proud Japanese man and an All-Star to boot who had his psyche totally blown and he hasn't been the same since. What kills me about the five or six blown saves since August is that if we held on to those games the chances that we'd have the division wrapped by now is 100% likely and everybody could be resting up for the post-season with two weeks to play. That is a killer.
You would think that after Gagne blew his second game that every time you wanted to run him out that you would have somebody ready to go the second he obviously lost it. What I witnessed this past Tuesday was embarassing and unacceptable. How do you let Gagne die out there when your season is hanging in the balance? I just don't get it. Naturally that's created a lot of anger and animosity amongst the team and now you have your young stud, employee 58, having a moment of immaturity by just throwing BP his last two outings and not staying focused on locking it down. With the magic number down to three for making the playoffs the Sox are assured a spot, because Beckett is their one sure bet and Schilling, who has pitched two great games in a row (was left in too long on Sunday, but was a result of no faith in the bullpen) will get those 3 games. Wake and Dice-K are kaput and Lester, who I absolutely love, will lose another frustrating game along the way.
This looks all too familiar. Does 2005 ring a bell? The Sox are going to be swept out of the playoffs faster than we can mentally prepare for them to actually be there. It's a shame really. This season was supposed to be different. We were supposed to be the favorites who everyone was trying to beat. Now we're damaged goods with a serious case of winaphobia.
