Hardball Heaven

Okay, I'm back. I've been cowering in the corner of my living room since about 11:00 last night, all coiled up in a shivering, quivering ball of pissed-offness. The unthinkable happened in Kansas City for the second straight evening, as the Sox frittered away a 4-2 lead and lost to the Royals again, 5-4. That's right - the 30-games-below-.500 Royals swept our juggernaut (first time since 1991 in KC) and we're all left to ponder whether this team really was a juggernaut in the first place. Ortiz and Manny have kept them in the race, and everyone else looks just plain old and slow, kind of like pitching coach Dave Wallace when he makes a trip to the mound, or Papi when he makes an out and trudges back to the dugout. All the pundits agreed that the Sox had to go 5-1 on this trip, or at worst, 4-2. They went 1-5, and have now lost five straight. Embarrassing to say the least.

The one bright spot last night was that the Yankees also lost - finally - so the lead stands at 3 games. All the callers to the local sports radio station today will want to bury the Sox, and I'm close to feeling that way too. The other half of me says maybe this serves as the ultimate wake-up call for this floundering squad. They've lost five straight to Tampa and KC, and will take on the Orioles tonight at Fenway in the start of a weekend series. Hopefully, being in the home environment snaps them out of this ugly funk. We find out how this team responds in its darkest hour at 7:05 tonight. Our stopper? The rotund one, David Wells, goes against Adam Loewen. In the meantime, I'm going to nail several mattresses to the walls of my living room, and I'm thinking about installing a punching bag. Better safe than sorry - ya know what I mean?