I Wanted To Jump

OK, let me get the facts straight.

The Boston Red Sox were just swept by the awful Cleveland Indians, the finale in a game that was their best pitched game so far. But the offense didn't show up yet again, and they managed just four hits against a pitcher that gave up TEN runs on Opening Day in less than four innings. And they couldn't score a single run against this guy?

0-6. Good God. It's now the worst start since World War II. They managed just five runs in three games against one of the AL's weaker pitching staffs. They are hitting .181 for the season.

I was with some British friends today, on the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building when I got the news of loss number six. I thought that jumping could end a lot of misery right now.

This is simply beyond embarrassing now. The albatross gets bigger, the awful start becomes more and more of a story, and now New York comes to town, and who do they face first? John Lackey.

I'm heading back to the Empire State Building.

Another lackluster effort tomorrow like the three we saw in Cleveland, and you may see something you don't see often at Fenway: the home side getting roundly booed, whether they deserve it or not.

I really pray that scenario doesn't happen.

My friend Don, a devoted Sox fan from Canada, wrote this on Facebook after the Texas sweep:

Bill Lee was on the radio Friday night saying that he had spent a couple of weeks around the Red Sox camp in Florida and felt that too many of the players were more interested in the tee times than in preparing for the season. He didn't have a lot of good things to say about Papelbon either. Maybe they shouldn't have been reading the press clippings.

Didn't think much of it at the time, but now it makes me wonder.