Do They Have to Make Us Sweat?

I believe the answer to the question in the title is: Yes. Of course.

Oh brother, have I seen this act before.

The AL East title is now firmly withing the Red Sox' sights, and tonight they drop a real stinker, a lethargic, lifeless 6-1 loss to the Blue Jays in Toronto, a team with numerous injuries who are just playing out the schedule, and just fighting to stay at .500. Tonight the Red Sox looked like the team playing out the schedule. No fire, no spark, no nothing tonight.

They just have to make a nervous fan base just a little more uptight.

This is to take nothing away from Blue Jays starter Dustin McGowan. He pitched a terrific game, and was never in trouble the whole night. He looks like a pitcher with a future, as he allowed just one run on four hits in pitching a complete game victory. Tim Wakefield wasn't awful, as he was in his previous two starts, but he put the Sox in an immediate hole by allowing a two-run homer to Frank Thomas in the first inning. He then settled down, and went six innings, but allowed another home run to Thomas, who later hit his third of the night off of Kyle Snyder (who's rapidly pitching his way off the postseason roster) in the eighth to cap off the Blue Jays win.

And as I write this, the Yankees were leading the Orioles by four runs. (You know how that one will turn out.) You can't count on having other teams, especially one that has dropped 19 of their last 25, to do your business for you.

And if the Red Sox not showing up tonight is bad enough, the Mets gave an even worse performance tonight in Washington than they did at Shea yesterday. Less said about that the better.

They just have to make Red Sox Nation sweat just a little more. Their fans don't have enough ulcers from watching this. The Red Sox simply can't do anything the easy way.

Give us a break. The fans don't need this aggravation.

It's time to stop the fooling around, get focused and wrap up the goddamn division already.