Backs to the Wall

The Sox now must win three consecutive games to advance. The way they are hitting I'm not sure they will win one. I go back to my mid-season suspicion about the Red Sox. They can't lose with Beckett on the mound, but they can't win with Drew, Crisp, Lugo, Pedroia and Varitek hitting like the walking dead. So what happens when two opposing forces hit? Something has to give. And when you don't have Beckett on the mound every day you begin to realize it was nothing short of a miracle that allowed the Sox to win the A.L. East. It just doesn't make sense. J.D. Drew alone would poison any lineup. But put him after Crisp and Lugo and before Varitek and you have a witch's brew of fuck-awful hitting. You can hit three consecutive home runs with Youk, Papi, Manny. Then what happens?

Lowell: FLy out
Drew: FLy out
Crisp: Fly out
Teck: Single
Lugo: Double Play (ouch)
Pedroia: Fly out
Youk: FLy out
Papi: Fly out
Manny: Fly out
Lowell: Foul out
Drew: Fly out
Crisp: Fly out.

oh, does anyone see a pattern here? The Sox got one hit for three innings. Meanwhile, the Indians score in exactly one inning...an inning that was about two inches from being over on a double play ball that Wakefield knocked down. That's brutal folks.
Never mind that Youk came a foot from plating the winning run in game 2. Inches decided these last games. But then you look at J.D. Drew. 2-15. How can you keep a rally going when your 6-7-8-9 batters are awful and your leadoff guy swings at the first pitch with a swing he stole from Reggie Jackson? You can't. Beckett is going to have to pitch a no hitter on wed. for the sox to have a chance. He lost a couple 1-0 games earlier in the year that absolutely gave me migraines. Horrible. The Sox made average pitchers look like Nolan Ryan. They had no idea what to do. And Francona puts himself in this position where if he makes a change now then he is admitting that he screwed up with the lineup in 4 straight games. Well, he did screw up. So he's going to "Put the men on the field that got us here." which is the old song of a coach who has two years left in town. You never hear Torre say that. Doug Mienkiewicz didn't get the Yankees to the playoffs, but guess what?> He played first base in the playoffs. That's smart baseball.
I swear the Sox should hire Joe Torre. They'd finally have a manager then.

We'll see what happens, but you generally get what you deserve in Baseball. And every time the Red Sox lose it makes you wonder how they got there in the first place.