Last night sucked, but it was one night, as mentioned. The frontrunners on the Sox side are s***ing britches too soon, and the frontrunners on the Yanks side are counting pennants prematurely. But, that is to be expected.
Despite Jacko's attempt to give this loss more magnitude than it warrants with the whole "You have to figure wins with Dice on the mound" garbage, I can honestly say I did not expect to win last night. Not against a hot lefty. Bedard has been fantastic for about 3 months straight now, and it doesn't look like he'll slow down. Similarly, I expect to lose to Kazmir, no matter who is going for us.
Now, last night was a no doubt gutpunch loss. It sucks to see the new acquisition s*** the bed in a big spot, and it sucks to let what should have been a stolen game get away. The sliver lining though is that Francona should now know that Oki is the setup man, and he needs to pay attention to platooning when the lead is less than 6. Having Gagne start the inning when it was 3/4 lefties coming up, and then bringing in Okajima for the righty is bassackwards.
And, Jacko, how 'bout a little consistency? You pooh pooh'ed Hughes poor return game as needing to get his legs under him. No chance the same holds for Schilling? He went 6 strong for giving up the gopher in the 7th, against a division leader, not the Royals. The double standard you apply is one of the funnier things on this site. Almost as funny as having Gom come back to talk s***.