a700hitter

Last night's game gave us a rare series win. We need to win 5 of our next 6 series to getto the point where they can be voewed as a serioisly competitive team for a post season spot. Right now, they are not competitve. They are one of the worst teams in the league. They have been embarrassingly bad to this juncture.

Holt has been the biggest and most pleasant surprise of a season that has been mainly painful thus far.

Freddie is taking the Sox streaking!!

Bring up Betts

Pedroia wrecked that inning.

Mujica is warming. We need runs!

Insurance run, please!

We need to build a lead.

Ross shouldn't even bother to carry a bat to home plate.

And Holt leads off the inning with a double and a steal of third base.

Acrobatic catch by Holt, saving Gomes.

My only interest in this tournament is whether there are any fan riots and/or deaths and whether there is Civil unrest and deaths in Brazil during the tournament.

This OF reminds me of an OF that I watched patrol Fenway for a few games: Jeff Frye in RF, Daubach in LF and Curtis Pride in CF. At least Pride was a real OFer. Tonight's OF makes me gag a little.

Go Red Sox! Go Freddie! If Fred sets us on course for a winning streak, it will be amusing to watch the heads explode on TalkSox.

Bradley has been so bad that his father cringes at every mention of Jr. by an announcer.

Brock Holt gets his first major league start on CF tonight. Wow! Who predicted that at tthe beginning of the season. It underscores the utter futility of Bradley and Sizemore.

Bradley's inability to catch up with a major league fastball is concerning. That is not something a player can learn.

LOL! Seriously though, I don't think that I have seen a deciding game in an NBA Finals that looked like it should have ended on a mercy rule or TKO. With about 2 minutes to go, I thought the Heat was going to walk over and start shaking hands with the Spurs to congratulate them.

The Spurs have the best ball movement of any team in a long long time. The last time I can remember where an entire team moved the ball around like them was the '69 Kinicks. It was beautiful to watch. It was insane that Parker didn't score until almost the 4th period and they were still burying the Heat. Sitting LeBron saved him from being embarrassed. He was worn down and the Spurs were stopping him cold by that point. There was nothing he could do. His coach saved him from being embarrassed down the stretch. That was the right thing to do for his star.

This is so tragically sad. RIP. It was a joy to watch him play.

It would not have made a difference. The Spurs were just beating them into the ground. It was total domination.

The Red Sox are reportedly trying to convert Wil Middlebrooks to the outfield. They are already in the process of converting Betts. This is an organization that always had so many hammers in the OF that they couldn't find PT for all of them.

The Red Sox are reportedly trying to convert Wil Middlebrooks to the outfield. They are already in the process of converting Betts. This is an organization that always had so many hammers in the OF that they couldn't find PT for all of them.

Ortiz? Seriously? He is surrounded with garbage and you are surprised that his stats are off. I am surprised that he gets anything to hit. The truth is that last year was a perfect season. Every time we needed something to happen, it happened with uncanny regularity. Buchholz and Lester came out of the chute on fire. By the time Ortiz made his debut in May, the team was well on its way. By the time Buch got injured he'd already put up a season of great stats and we won all of his 10-12 starts. His was the only serious injury sustained by the team, and he played a huge role in their success before he suffered his injury. They were incredibly resilient and never lost 4 in a row and their confidence and belief in themselves continued to build all season long. The LF platoon of a journeyman and a career minor leaguer was the most potent offensive left field in baseball. That wasn't going to repeat. Nava's Joe Hardy deal with the devil has expired and he looks like the minor league hack that he is. They played well-above their heads last year. It was not a supremely talented group, but they were a determined bunch that played great. We lost one of our few stars and we are left with Pedroia and Papi as the remaining stars and Pedroia has been a shell of his former self. Other than the two remaining stars (Pedroia and Ortiz), the team is pretty much the same -- a bunch of mainly undistinguished role players that can't replicate last year's magic. We all misjudged this team's capability in light of last year's magic. We thought they could lose Ellsbury and not miss a beat. I am not laying this all off on Ellsbury by any means, nor am I justifying his contract so save your breath. I am just saying that we overestimated this team's capability. This is not a simple case of a championship hangover. This team is 14th out of 15 teams with a record worse than the Astros. Ask any casual baseball fan to name a single player on the Astros. We are firmly in suckland. This is the worst offense the team has had in decades. It is embarrassing to be this bad the year after winning a championship.

As Yogi said, ninety percent of the game is half mental. Some players thrive in the spotlight and others wilt. It's as simple as that, and statistics are not that helpful in figuring out which category a player falls in. The players can see it in another player's eyes or bearing.