A Toronto Weekend!--Peter

Well, it's been a typical Toronto weekend for the Sox--and that applies regardless of the actual location of the games. Historically, with only a very few exceptions, the Hose seem to have a great amount of difficulty beating the guys from north of the border. This weekend was no exception. First, after a rainout on Friday, they faced the Jays' best pitcher, Halliday. Now here we have a difficult task in any case. Although the Sox have on occasion beaten Halliday, it's not a common thing. He has won a Cy, and is always a tough pitcher to get anything against. Saturday was no exception. The Sox, in spite of a late solo shot by Dusty, could do no better than a 4-1 loss.

Today was far worse, from all aspects. Beckett was starting for the Hose and had just come off his last game, an eight inning masterpiece. Should give us at least a good chance, yes? Well, no. In fact, make that NO!! After K'ing the leadoff hitter, JB gave up hits to next six batters, finally facing ten batters while surrendering six runs in the 1st. As it turned out, the game was over the, since the boys from the Fens would only manage four runs all game. JB ultimately left after 2 1/3, his shortest outing since a 1 1/3 mess in June of 2006. But is was like a snowball rolling downhill. Things just kept getting worse for our heroes. Each successive Boston hurler gave up hits and runs, except the last one, Papelbon, and he wasn't in trying to save a game, just get some work to stay sharp. His inning was classic Laserman--three up, three down, with a pair of K's in 13 total pitches. Unfortunately, nobody else was even remotely close. Okajima, who in recent outings has looked very much like the Oki we've come to expect from 2007, had a terrible inning: five hits and three runs, all earned, on 28 pitches. Aardsma, Timlin, Buchholz and Masterson each gave up a run apiece in one to one and 1/3 innings each. Not pretty.

On the plus side, if there was one, both Yooouk and Dusty left the yard, Yoouk's his 23d for the year. Lowrie went 3-3, including a double and triple; one homer short of the cycle.

To make matters worse, with these two losses, the Sox are now four behind Tampa, subject to the Rays' game tonight, and just five up on Mr. Hankie's Yankees and a half game up on the Twins in the wild card race. They go on the road for nine games, all against AL East teams, starting tomorrow in Baltimore. Yuck!