Gut Check

Let's be frank, shall we? This was not the greatest weekend for the Sox. After having his start pushed back to yesterday on account of Friday's rainout Paul Byrd lost a decent game to the Blue Jays and Roy Halladay, 4-1. Today's game was much more shameful, with last year's ace Josh Beckett getting lit up for eight runs over two and a third innings before losing 15-4 to give up both games in the rain-shortened home series. To just ice over this cake of bad luck, J.D. Drew left the game with tightness in his back.

Oh, the things that go wrong.

This weekend perfectly summed up the troubles of this year's team. Saturday's game was an example of the pitching being passable but the power being out in the lineup, and today's game was just a shitty outing by the guy who should be our ace, and again a slight power outage. In the hindsight of the Manny trade (because I know so many people think Manny's absence in the order has affected everyone) we still made the right move. But until this team can get itself on an offensive tear, we'll be going nowhere in the standings thank you very much.

Today is August 17, and the first place Rays have just started their game against the gopher-prone Texas rangers. The club that has for so long been the floor sweepers in the AL East are now the club that can't lose. Explosive offense, superior starting pitching, outstanding bullpen... all of them check. Heck, they've even started to perfect their own late inning rallies to keep their lead at a very healthy four games (and 4.5 if they win). Everybody's seen what it takes to win a World Series, and the biggest thing is made up of all the little ones. It's the bloop singles, the walks instead of groundouts, the effective relief work, the lucky bounces and and the hair-close calls that fall your way. Tampa Bay has all of those things working  for them and the Red Sox, the talented, well-paid, loveable Red Sox, are on the other end.

Until that changes (and we avoid the mistakes of this weekend), we'll be looking up Joe Maddon's but all the way to October.

Sigh Your Relief, Sox Win 2-1

Jason Bay, welcome to the Red Sox.

Talk about a young man overwhelmed by the sight of Fenway ready to rock itself off the foundation after an extra-innings win. Bay was gracious the entire day, and even when they labeled him the hero of the game and megawatt sideline reporter Heidi Watney took him aside for a party-line postgame candid, he made sure to give credit to everyone else. What a difference, huh?

In the field, Bay looked like what we expected. His first several ABs produced two walks, a HBP, and two strikeouts. Then in the twelfth he promptly sent a moon ball off the Monster for a triple and his first Red Sox hit.  An intentional walk to J.D. Drew brought up Jed Lowrie (who already had the only Sox RBI of the game, as he scored Bay), who promptly bounced one over the mound that bad-hopped Bobby Crosby for an infield hit, and the winning RBI, scored (again) by Bay.

Bay's biggest impact came not at the plate, but in the field and on the basepaths. In the fifth inning, with the tying run on third, Bay made a smooth sliding catch of Ryan Sweeney's bloop down the left field line to preserve the lead. With Manny in the game, there's a very good chance that Sweeney would've picked up the RBI and the game would've been tied much earlier. On the basepaths, most hitters on the Sox would've had Bay's hit stand at a triple, but Bay combined decent speed with heads-up baserunning to turn it into a triple. Both of these are encouraging signs that Bay will indeed contribute to this team, even if it is in a much different way than Manny.

Intangibly, the absence of Manny Ramirez and the presence of his replacement produced a visible change in the makeup of the club. The dugout looked much lighter, and Francona looked a little healthier. No joke.

Before closing, one thing really irked me about the trade, and it has nothing to do with Manny or the Sox. Nomar Garciaparra is a whiny little bitch. Here's a guy who went from one of my absolute heroes (and first bobblehead purchase) to just an immature, narcissistic veteran with a napoleonic complex. When asked about the acquisition of Manny and the slugger's displeasure with the Sox, Nomar had this to say:

"There's a lot of truth to what he said," Garciaparra said at his Dodger Stadium locker Thursday, two hours after the Dodgers acquired Ramirez. "I can definitely understand and relate. Maybe he'll be next to me [in an adjacent locker], and we can chat and laugh about it."

The Red Sox rid themselves of a contract dispute by trading Garciaparra at the deadline four years ago, and they rid themselves of another one Thursday.

"Manny said he didn't want to leave there," Garciaparra said. "I didn't want to leave there. . . . Were we the only ones that have gone through it? There's a track record. I played with Mo [Vaughn]. I played with Roger [Clemens]."

You gotta love Nomar not getting over getting traded for a World Series trophy in 2004. The sweet justice in this? After giving the interviews and making himself relevant to the LA sports world for one day, he's promptly put on the 15-day DL with a sprained left knee (and not willingly, I might add).