jung

That slow infield in Baltimore hurt them this time. Swisher hit what could have been a double play ball that the O's could not turn. 5-4, one out, two on and Tex up

Jeter with a bunt base hit to load the bases.

Ichiro with another of his slap hits to lead off the 9th. Skanks have two on and nobody out.

Buck saved the day and got Strop out of there. O's up 5-3 going into the top of the 9th.

Buck pulled Strop which had to be tough. Basically saying I can't trust you to get one out which is in fact correct in these situations at this point. He just can't even maintain reasonable consistency in his pitching motion. He is like a jitterbug out there. Bad time for him to fall apart like this.

Strop has just been terrible lately. You can see his heart throbbing in his throat. I think if Buck wants to win this game he has to get Strop out of there. He is simply not able to pitch in these sorts of situations, at least not right now.

Was Iggy's one hit an infield hit? I have not seen him get the ball out of the infield. I have seen three of these flairs so far which might be as close as he has come to a hit. I just have never seen such a string of weak plate appearances.

Tonight Jenny reminds me of my dads baby blue 55 caddy.

Gomez you dink. That was not a good pitch to swing at 0-0 count. Geez it is like a disease. Here is a Paw guy, usually expected to have a little more discipline than that....they have one of their few chances to do something in this game and the guy swings 0-0 count into a DP! Do they not get anything? Here is one of the places where again we might with emphasis on the might fault V. I think he has allowed all of these guys far to much freedom to do as they please with regard to their plate appearances.

This thing is likely to go just long enough to record another Sox lost game.

O's are now up by a 4-2 score over the yankoffs with another HR. Make that 5-2 now.

Holy Cow. I knew Ells was not hitting. I did not think he was hitting anything off of anybody. But the last game of the Royals series was 27th of August. So going on a couple weeks since he has had a hit off a starter. ugly ugly ugly

I would agree with that. I can't see how he would be a solid rotation guy. Ace more than Bard had a defined role that was unquestionably the best place for him to be. One thing outings like this one might say is that Ace can go back to what he was although I would not be surprised if he had not burned his bridges here. I am not all that bent out of shape about his fly ball outs. I just think that the ability to go 5 and 6 innings every time out every 5th day is not really the same thing that Ace seems to do well and I don't see anything in the way he pitches that would suggest he would be a successful starter.

The Sox never really had an offense this year. They were a bunch a' guys that would sometimes score a lotta' runs and sometimes not. They were entirely dependent on mashing and sometimes they mashed. They could never score a run that they needed to save their lives but they could sometimes score ten runs most of them not more than stat sheet filler. Very poorly constructed team. None of the people that are responsible for this conglomeration of ballplayers including Theo and BC have anything to be proud of. Who know if they have even learned anything from this mess.

O's have taken the lead on the Spanks. Jacko must be at the end of his rope.

Looks like Ace might be trying to make a point here as in....."you should have let me start at the beginning of the season".

When the Sox are batting the EEI radio guys have been relegated to giving notoriety to hard hit ground balls vs weak ground balls as in "last time So and So was up he hit a hard ground ball." Pretty funny hearing an announcing trying to make hay on a ground ball

Don't know if anybody has noticed but the O's have come back on the Spanks and the game is tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the 3rd.

If I had known there would not be one I would have started one, certainly not for mojo but just to have one specific to this game. In truth these games are all starting to run together now.....all sort of the same game.

Brennan if you are building an ark just make sure not to take any Red Sox along. We don't need this bunch breeding.

Felix was our 4 most of this year mainly because of who we had in the 5 hole. Finally with the exception of Buch they have all looked like 5s', some of them trying to be 4s'.

I know you can make the case that other teams now have much more to play for than the Sox but in truth the Sox have been out to lunch all season long. I think that it has been particularly hard on the younger players that probably just do not know what to think about what they have witnessed all season long. Ortiz says he was embarrassed and insulted. Well if you are a young guy coming up, how much to you take that with a grain of salt. If true how can Ortiz be playing with any real joy or enthusiasm. I am not blaming Ortiz specifically because to some degree all of the so called team leaders have at one time or another made it difficult for this team to play cohesively, with any joy or even as a team. There have been outbursts of what in hindsight must not have been anything more than false revery and enthusiasm as it would disappear and dissipate as quickly as it came on...like the night of the Ross walk off, overturned Gatorade, torn shirts and all. That was way overdone that night but just as quickly forgotten the next day when they got creamed again. When I think about the intensity that teams bring to the table in the post season I shudder to think how badly the Sox would have done under those circumstances. They have so few players that could step up to that challenge...Pedey, Ortiz and that might have been it...maybe WMB would have been able to step up...Ross. Our pitching would have been blown to smithereens. Either our pitchers would have been dead as doorknobs or so overamped as to be ineffective anyway. Could you see Padilla pitching to Tex? or Aceves to anybody? Oh my God.

I know you can make the case that other teams now have much more to play for than the Sox but in truth the Sox have been out to lunch all season long. I think that it has been particularly hard on the younger players that probably just do not know what to think about what they have witnessed all season long. Ortiz says he was embarrassed and insulted. Well if you are a young guy coming up, how much to you take that with a grain of salt. If true how can Ortiz be playing with any real joy or enthusiasm. I am not blaming Ortiz specifically because to some degree all of the so called team leaders have at one time or another made it difficult for this team to play cohesively, with any joy or even as a team. There have been outbursts of what in hindsight must not have been anything more than false revery and enthusiasm as it would disappear and dissipate as quickly as it came on...like the night of the Ross walk off, overturned Gatorade, torn shirts and all. That was way overdone that night but just as quickly forgotten the next day when they got creamed again. When I think about the intensity that teams bring to the table in the post season I shudder to think how badly the Sox would have done under those circumstances. They have so few players that could step up to that challenge...Pedey, Ortiz and that might have been it...maybe WMB would have been able to step up...Ross. Our pitching would have been blown to smithereens. Either our pitchers would have been dead as doorknobs or so overamped as to be ineffective anyway. Could you see Padilla pitching to Tex? or Aceves to anybody? Oh my God.

Man I am so tired of seeing opponents celebrating at home plate...just sick to death of it. I don't know what I hate more...opponents celebrating at home or BC talking about pitching. "Well Ben, what are your thoughts regarding building up the Sox pitching assets?" "Well Don its like this, blah.... blah.... blah.... blah.. blah.. blah.. blah." "Well Ben, how do you intend making the needed changes?" "Don as I see it, blah..blah......blah....blah..blah..blah." "Thank you Ben for that enlightened and engrossing interview. If you don't mind I am going to stick my head in this meat grinder now."

Bard just does not seem to have any idea how to throw consistently. His motion is all over the place. The ball is all over the place and he is throwing nothing balls right in the heart of the plate. Can't even seem to rear back and just throw at this point which might be all they should have him try to do.....he is so fouled up. That said....ambulances standing by