Beauty Is Only First Inning Deep--Peter

Well, after two consecutive losses at the hands of the Oakland Athletics, the events of the Sox first inning today seemed to presage a welcome change. A thing of beauty, David Ortiz parked his 11th home run on the year in the bleachers for a one zip lead as the game got under way. John Lester was pitching for the Sox against Joe Blanton, who, despite being described locally as the 'ace' of the Oakland staff, is really an average journeyman starting pitcher--especially against the Sox. The trouble is that the Sox today, after that first inning burst of offense, were basically ugly.

Lester's pitching was not even remotely similar to his no-hitter this past week, although he might have survived had it not been for the Sox' truly ugly defensive play. Starting with one of his own, Lester and the Sox had to endure a total of three errors in the game. At least three of the A's runs were in some way resulting from these errors. In case you haven't noticed, three runs was the margin of victory for the A's as well, so today's ugliness had a direct bearing on the results. Speaking of results, with this loss, the Sox drop to a half game behind the Rays, who, winning again today have moved past them into first--again. Worse, Mr. Hankie's Yankees won again, completing their sweep of the Mariners, who are the next team the Sox visit.

Hopefully, they'll get back on track as this is the longest road losing streak the team has had to endure since 2001. It's now at 7.

On the plus side, besides Papi's homer,Manny, after a night off, went 3-4 and drove in two runs. Youk, although going hitless, extended his record consecutive errorless game streak to 231 games in a row. Not much else to tell, but this losing has got to stop.