Well, THAT was ugly...

Massacred Boston Red Sox: 5 Harmful Ultraviolet Rays: 14

Where do I begin???? The Sox had a chance to gain a leg up on their achilles heel, the Tampa Bay Rays with a win this afternoon. "Had" being the key word here. A combination of a nuclear fifth inning by Lester and sloppy defense behind him (Lugo, Bailey), combined with the not-so-stellar components of the Sox bullpen, Hunter Jones and Javier Lopez, toasted the Sox big-time. The offense wasn't too terribly bad; scoring five runs in a game should be enough to win if pitching and defense don't bite the big one, as they did today. How ironic it is that a team that, before the season started, was touted as being built around pitching and defense, can credit their offense for the bulk of their wins. Who would have thought Wake would be the staff's ace, with a 4-1 record and ERA under 3?

Lester, after his last start against the Yankees when he fanned 10 and allowed three runs over seven innings, looked like he was turning a corner. Today, he couldn't make it out of the fifth, after surrendering eight runs, six coming in that inning from hell. After giving up a two-run homer to (who else?) Evan Longoria in the first inning, Lester started to settle down until the fateful fifth. This guy's on my fantasy team and he's really starting to make me nervous. Maybe all the innings he pitched last year, when he was the ace of the staff, are coming back to bite him this year. Whatever it is, he is capable of pitching much better than he has so far this season.

Lugo, oh Lugo, your best game this season was the one where you DH'ed. Lugo went deep today for the first time this season (along with Rocco Baldelli, who ate up a gopher ball from Kazmir in the second), but he's still shaky at short. Bailey is obviously no Youk at first either. The infield really needs to sharpen their game against the Rays. Those dome-dwellers from the Sunshine State are capitalizing on every mistake the Sox make. There's no getting away with anything when playing this team!

Tomorrow night, the Sox have an uphill battle in the rubber game and his name is Matt Garza. Garza remains a frustrating enigma to the Sox batters and he nearly no-hit them last week. One would think that the Sox have seen him enough to begin to figure him out. Just as Longoria, Crawford, and Pena pulverize Sox pitchers with their bats (and, in Crawford's case, legs), Garza has this bizarre deep-freeze effect on the Sox offense. They have to get to him eventually, don't they???

LET'S GO RED SOX!!!! SHAKE TODAY OFF AND GO GET 'EM TOMORROW!