That's It, Red Sox Pitching Sucks

But you already knew that.

Last night, the team with the worst record this August (yes, our Sox) took on the team with the best record this August (those Oakland A's). And this was Boston's lineup:
Crisp, CF
Cora, SS
Loretta, DH
Youkilis, LF
Lowell, 3B
Hinske, RF
Lopez, C
Pena (Carlos), 1B
Pedroia, 2B

Seriously.

Okay, some good stuff: In the first, Hinske had his second great defensive play in as many games - a backwards leaping catch that earned some congrats from Coco. In the same inning, Cora made a great diving catch and threw the ball to second out of his glove. The defense was on immediately.

The rest was bad. Gabbard didn't have it, and Casey only had it for a very brief while. The offense was (surprisingly!) lacking, and Foulke gave up THREE home runs in TWO innings of work. I swear I sat in my chair for 11 minutes after the game ended because I was in shock at the final score of 9-0. That not only sucks, it's embarrassing. The Red Sox need to get it together and fast, because at the rate they're going, they will be watching the Twins or White Sox play the games they should be playing.

More bad news on the injury front, and it's probably the worst news we could get: David Ortiz went back to Boston to get his once again-irregular heartbeat checked out. Francona thinks he's okay, but..."We honestly think he's okay, [but] we can't play him like that. Can't do it. He's going to go back to Boston [today]. He's going to get a clean bill of health before we let him play again. We just can't do it. I know Theo's in agreement with me. We sat in here with him. As much as we want to win, we can't do it. Just want to make sure he's OK."

I've missed PTI lately, but Mariotti replacing Tony? That is wrong. Jay, je ne t'aime pas. And his little diatribe against Manny not only made him look stupid, but it made me dislike him even more (which I didn't think was possible). Wilbon, ever the voice of reason, calmed me down with his sane argument against Idiot Mariotti. I wish Francona would have said this to Idiot instead of some foolish reporter, "If a guy says he can't play, he can't (expletive) play." By the way, Mariotti basically said Manny was faking and he should tough it out because the team needs him. I'm sure the Red Sox pay no attention to IM, but come on. If Manny says he's hurt, who is IM to say he isn't? Forget that Manny being Manny crap, the team really does need him and I doubt he'd let them down like this on purpose.

At least something good happened yesterday: In the Little League World Series, Georgia won! A 2-run home run sealed the deal. I really enjoyed watching the kids, especially when they'd do little things that you won't see Major Leaguers do: shaking hands after hitting batters, hugging members of the losing team, and the Georgia pitcher, despite just winning, making sure to lead the team over to shake the Japan team's hands. Congatulations to Georgia, even though they beat Oregon earlier.

And Andre Agassi won a tight match in NY, I hope he goes far during his final U.S. Open. It was certainly more exciting watching Agassi's match than the Red Sox disaster.