Blowing it 

(August 18)

Short take:  Waiting for disaster

Guess which team is game under .500?  Nearly two months after Sox Fans rejoiced at the near-miracle that their team could rebound so quickly from a 15 games under-.500 deficit, our Pale Hose are again on the wrong side of mediocrity.  The Oakland Athletics take advantage of sloppy Sox play (practically an oxymoron), score the tying and go-ahead runs in the eighth inning and put away our so-so Sox 5-4.

It's best this team will be home come October.  They would only embarrass us in the playoffs.

Starter Gary Glover deserved a better fate than the no decision he got.  Carlos Lee's two-run dinger in the first combined with Magglio Ordonez's two-run double in the third inning ought to have been enough to launch the Sox to victory.  The Sox got four runs and six hits from Oakland's young ace Mark Mulder and looked set to win an improbable victory when he left after four innings.

Not so fast.  While the Sox had their way with Mulder at the plate, they were also blowing it in the field.  Aaron Rowand got a poor jump on what should have been a popout for the third out of the third inning.  Instead it was a two-rbi single putting the A's back in business.  Glover made a mistake and paid the price with a solo dinger in the fifth making it 4-3.  Could our Sox hold on?  Not this year.

The Sox offense basically shutdown after the fourth inning.  That left it up to the bullpen to shut the door.  Ha!

Kip Wells managed to get by unscathed in the sixth and seventh, but you could have predicted the Sox would lose if you knew Jerry Manuel would next reach for Bob Howry and Alan Embree from his 'pen.  Howry gave up a long double to start the eighth and the roof promptly caved in.  The way Howry was serving batting practice, it's a miracle Oakland only scored two runs.  

Embree was next, getting through the ninth giving up some of the longest, loudest, heart-palpitating flyballs to ever stay inside Comiskey Park.  We we're cooked.

The Sox go 1-2-3 in the ninth, not a bit of fight in 'em.  They're a shadow of last year's team.