Another Lead Disappears

A rotten Sunday afternoon in the heat of Texas: Red Sox leave runners everywhere, Tazawa gives up four runs, and the Red Sox lose, 4-3.

They are now officially in second place in the Wild Card race, as Texas now has the lead by a half-game.

Another important road series, and the Sox lose it once again. I looked at this six-game swing in Texas and Toronto before it began and thought they really needed to take 4 of 6 instead of the usual spilt of a road trip. Now they need to sweep Toronto to make that happen.

David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia both went deep but they were both solo shots.

I had a feeling this was going to be a rough day when I saw Brian Anderson and Alex Gonzalez at the bottom of the order. You can live with Gonzo at shortstop with his weak bat and good glove, but Anderson is simply a stiff at the plate. He can play the outfield but it's no wonder the White Sox finally gave up on him, as he's a .225 lifetime hitter. And yet, Terry Francona let both hit in the eighth down by one with one out. And both struck out against C.J. Wilson in the Sox' final threat of the day.

Now it's off to Toronto for three. I'm waiting for that hot streak, that 15 out of the next 20 to happen to propel the Red Sox, but I'm seriously wondering if we won't see that until 2010.