The Glass Menagerie

Look out! The 2011 Red Sox are falling down the 2006-hole! Papi has an achilles heel, Youk and Scoots are moaning "Oh my aching back!" (joining Buchholz, of course) and Red Sox Nation has a collective headache watching the overrated Red Sox offense flail away like blind, disoriented squirrels at pretty much any pitch that pretty much any pitcher throws. Add to all this a "settle for the Wild Card" mentality from the Powers that Be and it's going to be a brutal stretch run for this team. They look like the woebegone April version who lost 10 of their first 12 games and played baseball like blindfolded 5-year-olds playing Pin The Tail on the Donkey. Guess what? The blindfolded 5-year-olds are back and have no earthly clue where they're throwing the ball. How they stumbled upon a triple play last night is a mystery to me, but even the aforementioned blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile.

Something needs to be done about this team's training and conditioning regimen: They're made of glass! First the pitchers started dropping like flies and now the hitters are looking like players in the Old Timers' Game. Lowrie is one twinge away from managing to get hurt again and he's hitting and fielding atrociously to boot. Gonzo looks like Sean Casey, but with a better glove and looks like he's one sudden head turn away from a neck brace. Crawford may need to connect himself with an eye chart. Reddick has come back down to earth, as predicted, and still has some plate discipline issues. Tek's average is plummeting again. Only Ells (who provided the singular clutch hit of the series against Tampa "We Own The Red Sox at Fenway" Bay), and to some extent Pedey, are hitting and playing the type of baseball they're capable of. Ells and Pedey are great players, but they can't do it all themselves. It's only a matter of time before they get dragged down by the rest of the team.

The pitching has not been terrible, but it hasn't been great either, save for Lester's gem in the first game of yesterday's double-header. Bedard's pitching well, but getting no run support, just like back in Seattle. Of course, the Red Sox made the Mariners' offense look pretty damn good last weekend. Beckett's been getting no run support all season. The run support even dried up for Lackey today.

Good luck on that road trip, Red Sox, because you're gonna need it. As for me, I need to step away for the sake of my sanity. If that makes me a "bad fan" so be it. I get too emotionally invested in these games and it takes a toll. I had to get this rant out of my system before going on the blogging and Red Sox-watching DL. If things turn around for the Sox, that's great, but I'm not counting on it. In the meantime, I need to try to give my mind (not to mention my blood pressure) a little break from it all.