Torture

I watched both games of yesterday's double Fenway disaster at Professor Thom's, with a break in-between to do other things. The second game was a benefit for my friend Kim and the National Down's Syndrome Society, with cool raffles in between innings, with such goodies as autographed baseballs and books. That was the fun part of the night.

The second game was nothing short of Chinese water torture. Watching the Red Sox pitching staff absolutely implode all day long was extremely painful to watch. The only pitchers who gave a decent effort in either game were Julian Tavarez, Keith Foulke and ironically enough, Jason Johnson (who was designated for assignment after the first game to activate Foulke).

By the sixth inning, my eyes started to hurt and I started getting a headache. I wanted this game over in the worst way. But it just went on, and on, and on. It eventually became the longest nine-inning game in baseball history.

I'm not going to go over the gory details, as most of you know them. The Red Sox pitching is absolutely absymal right now, and I don't see any postseason berth the way it's going right now. The heat is now clearly on the shoulders of Josh Beckett today to give the Red Sox a much needed lift. Once this series ends, the Sox head for a nine-game West Coast swing. Right now, I dread the idea of where they might be on August 30, when that trip concludes.

I said it before, and I'll say it again: pitching will tell the story as to whether the Red Sox go to the postseason. The blown leads, especially from the last road trip, have come back to haunt this team in the worst way.

The season is on the line over the next two weeks. We'll see if they have anything left to make any kind of a serious run.