Game 58: June Swoon

Final Score: Boston Red Sox 2, Oakland Athletics 3

Believe it or not, there were two moments of last night's game I actually enjoyed: first, seeing the Sox score their first runs in seventeen innings, by doing what they do best: putting the ball in play with enough room to spare. Manny doubling to lead off, Youkilis knocking him in with a triple, then coming home when Wily Mo hit a grounder to the left side of the infield. Sweet, sweet relief, like a baseball equivalent of rain in the desert footage played at high speed on a nature show, where the plant grows, uncurls and blooms in the span of about a minute. Of course, this bloom got to about half explosion before it fell over and the plant died, but it was something.

Second, Terry Francona completely losing it on a strike two call to Pedroia in the eighth. Or, more accurately, Francona loudly telling homeplate umpire Dan Iassogna - from the dugout - that he disagreed with the high strike call, getting tossed for his trouble then storming out of the dugout, exchanging some words with Iassogna then getting so angry he took out his gum/chem mix and threw it on the ground so he could give Iassogna the reaming of his life. The complaint wasn't entirely justified - nor was the ejection - but Iassogna had it coming: he'd been consistently inconsistent about the size and shape of his strike zone all night and had a made a terrible check swing call against Ortiz in the sixth. But more importantly (and this is what really made me feel good), Francona expressed what everyone on the bench and every Red Sox fan watching the game felt: this team has suddenly hit the brakes going 100 mph down the long train track to the post-season and it isn't fun to watch.

This morning I realized that the descriptor we're looking for is June Swoon. With six losses in the past seven games after a lights-out April and May, with an offense that's left its bats back in Boston, with four runs scored in three games, with seven double plays in the past two days (a number so incredible
it defies the imagination, like trying to imagine infinity), with the four game sweep looming...yeah, June is the word and swoon is the verb. Will the Sox pull out of the tailspin today? I hope so, but with the limited experience the Sox have against Joe Blanton - today's hopeful victim - I think we need to expect Manny to lead the charge.