Boston Red Sox 4, Kansas City Royals 10
What else is there to say? If your bullpen can’t hold back the Royals and you give up 6 runs in the 12th inning, if every game in September seems like a roll of the dice and they’re not even close to loaded on your side, if things are starting to give you (me?) flashbacks to 2003 but without the big lift at the end, maybe things aren’t going to happen.
About a year ago I called 2005 the Theo Epstein Experiment; he had a world championship and the love of Red Sox fans everywhere under his belt and it was time to start playing around with the composition of the team to simultaneously prove his ability to build a winning team with unusual parts and save his team owners some money, to get a return on their investment. My statement about the experiment failing was clearly a bit premature; 2005 was just the start, a point underscored by Theo’s press conference at the end of last month. Nick Cafardo’s article this morning was as much a post-mortem about this year’s failures as it was a summary of last night’s game, but implicit in this article and any other examination of this year is that something’s wrong with the Red Sox organization and its General Manager.
One of the things that bothers me most about the Boston media (and blogs like Boston Dirt Dogs) is the focus on the 162 season year; anyone who pays half a mind to the game of baseball knows how such a viewpoint is ridiculously shortsighted. However, after this year, it’s clear that with a team that’s simultaneously devoted to a long-term rebuilding (and actually committed, not using the term as an excuse for sucking) and forced to play parts of that rebuilt team before they’re really ready to play, even looking at one season isn’t enough of a long view. It’s something to keep in mind when the off-season really starts and every armchair GM in the country starts wondering about resigning Loretta and Gonzo, about what to do with Pedroia, about whether Josh Beckett will ever really use his head to pitch, about the composition of the bullpen next year and decides that maybe Theo Epstein doesn’t really know what he’s doing.
Final game of the series this afternoon, Tavarez versus Mark “I’m an All-Star” Redman. Let’s try to avoid another sweep to the Royals, ok? GO SOX!!!
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