Hardball Heaven

If there is such a thing, tonight's game against the Royals most definitely qualifies. This short road trip against the AL's have-nots - first the Devil Rays and now the Royals - has been an absolute nightmare. Our boys have lost four in a row, including a gut-punch loss last night when they blew a 4-0 lead and Papelbon gave it up in the 9th. As we sit here at 8:10 p.m. ET waiting to see if Curt Schilling can pick his team up yet again (he's 18-6 with a low 2 ERA in games following a Sox loss), the Red Sox are three games behind the Yankees and four in the loss column. Needless to say, things are ugly here in the Nation. The sound and the fury (as Theo calls it) is rapidly heating up.

Of course, they're not done with 50 games to go, even if they (gulp) get swept tonight by the lowly Royals. But this is as close as you can get to a must-win in early August as I've seen in my 30 years of following this soap opera. We need the ace to give us at least a solid 7. And we need the bats to pounce, and pounce early on Royals starter Runelvys Hernandez. They're calling for periods of rain in Kansas City tonight.