The Ball's In Your Court, Theo

Something big's coming. I can feel it.

Yet another crappy performance by the Red Sox on Wednesday night. Brad Penny gave up a home run to leadoff man Adam Kennedy on the first pitch, then gave up two hard-hit singles and then was afraid to throw a strike, walking two. Then the newest Red Sox killer, Rajai Davis, cleared the bases and made it 5-0. (I will give the A's credit. They've played hard this series, and they look like the team fighting for a division title.)

Good God. You knew this wasn't going to end well. Mike Lowell seemed to be the only Red Sox player who cared last night, driving in 5 of the 6 runs the Sox managed to score. He connected off the other Red Sox killer, Brett Anderson, in the first, a three-run shot, to get it back to 5-3. But then they remembered they can't hit against Anderson, and once again made him look a phenom. The middle of the order was simply dreadful, and Kevin Youkilis (who earned the Golden Sombero, four strikeouts last night) and Jason Bay looked totally lost right now.

Justin Masterson came on after Penny's barf-inducing performance and pitched like he was already in a Blue Jays uniform, giving up yet another run as soon as he entered. He has been simply awful since the Baltimore meltdown of a few weeks back.

Once again, the Boston Red Sox lost at home to the team with the third worst record in the American League, and one that sent up the white flag last week when they dumped their best hitter for prospects. They've given up 17 runs the past two nights to this team. (Emphasis added to drive home the point.)

The Sox should be beating up on crap teams like this. Instead they find themselves 3 1/2 games back, as New York won again. They've dropped 8 of 12 since the All-Star Break.

Another mind-numbing loss to the lousy Oakland A's, 8-6. I saw this series as a must-take-at-least-3-out-of-4 one. Now they can only hope to split on Thursday. That is if they win.

Maybe this embarrassment will finally wake this damned team up. Then again, the clock is ticking to 4 PM, Friday afternoon.

Enter Theo Epstein, stage left...