Hardball Heaven

After today's 10-3 shellacking, the Yanks have now won 8 straight games, and they pulled off a thievery of a trade last night/this morning when they sent four stiffs to Pittsburgh for OF Xavier Nady and RP Damaso Marte, both of whom have been in the crosshairs of several contending teams leading up to next Thursday's trading deadline.

Yup, the Bombers are beating up on our Sox both on the field and off, and they must be having a ball of a time watching the circus develop around the Manny situation. While I generally agree with the long-term, stable approach Theo Epstein espouses, I do believe he'll be working the phones like crazy over the next 48 hours to try to counter the Yanks' momentum. The two things he should be looking for, in my humble opinion, are a shutdown reliever - lefty or righty - and someone who can make us all forget Coco Crisp. In fact, I'd probably put the Crisp replacement at the top of the shopping list. I can no longer watch when the Sox have a rally, and their 7-8-9 hitters are strolling to the plate. Lowrie will be fine, and Varitek's not going anywhere. Which leaves Coco. The man makes some incredible plays in center field, and he knows how to duck a punch, no doubt. But can you think of one single offensive memory from this guy? Neither can I. My two biggest memories of Coco are the amazing catch he made off David Wright last year and the fight against James Shields and the Rays. If the Sox want to stay in this race, they need to make their lineup as strong 1 through 9 as they possibly can, because Lord knows the Yankees have the lineup - and they're starting to get the pitching.

Hopefully, Jon Lester continues his dominance tomorrow night and the Red Sox avoid an ugly Fenway sweep at their hands of their blood rivals. And hopefully, Theo's working the Blackberry non-stop. It could be something big (goodbye Manny) or it could be something medium. Either way, it's time for Theo to summon his creative juices and help his team have a chance to repeat.