Red Sox June Swoon Continues
Boston Gets Spanked Again by Rockies, Drops 8th game in June
Jun 15, 2007
As each day passes the Boston Red Sox seem intent upon frittering away their strong start in the AL East.
With their second consecutive loss to the lowly Colorado Rockies Thursday night, the Sox lead in the American League East is down to 7-1/2 games.
Yankees Creeping Closer and Closer
Naturally the team occupying the second slot in the division is … the New York Yankees. The streaking New Yorkers won their ninth straight game Thursday night, with Roger Clemens slated to throw against the Mets this evening.
"What we've done here is not a mistake," manager Joe Torre declared. "It's based on hard work. That's mentally and physically.” Indeed.
Third baseman Alex Rodriguez continued his torrid pace, collecting three hits and two runs batted in, upping his major league-leading total to 68. His bases-loaded walk in the first inning earned him his first RBI of the night – and that’s what he talked about after the game.
"I was as proud of my walk as any other at-bat," Rodriguez said. "Take what they give you." Rodriguez is also leading the majors with 25 homeruns. And outfielder Bobby Abreu, a huge disappointment early in the season, likewise brought his “A” game to Yankee Stadium – again. Abreu has hit safely in all 13 games in June. He's 22-for-50 (.440) with 12 walks in that span.
Two short weeks ago the Bronx Bombers trailed Boston by 14-1/2 games, mired eight games under the .500 mark, while the Red Sox have lost three of their last four, and have scored two or less runs in seven of their last nine contests.
Red Sox Reality Check?
Meanwhile the Sox flop continues, though Boston’s players bristled at the suggestion the squad is in free fall mode.
“We’ve got 98 more games to play,” snapped Boston first baseman Kevin Youkilis, in the wake of Wednesday night’s 12-2 drubbing. “They can lose six in a row, we can win six in a row, and then everyone’s writing that we’re running off with it again.” Sox manager Terry Francona likewise tried to explain away the team’s June swoon during which the Bostons have dropped eight of thirteen contests.
“It goes in cycles,” said Francona. “It changes. That’s why you need to win some games 2-1 because you don’t always go out and knock the ball out of the ballpark.”
Despite the hitting drought on the parts of newcomers J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo (as the free agent signings of both are making general manager Theo Epstein look more like former GM and proverbial knucklehead Dan Duquette), and second-year man Coco Crisp (another Epstein acquisition), Youklis insisted the Sox aren’t worried about the Yankees’ onslaught.
“What does that have to do with anything?” demanded Youkilis. “They have to play good sometime. We’ve got to play good ball regardless of what happens to them. Do you think we care what they are doing? They have to win every day to catch us. They have to win, we have to lose.”
That’s Entertainment … Barry Bonds
It was ace moundsman Curt Schilling who took the loss Wednesday night in an ultimate ugly outing following last week’s near no-hitter. And now righthanded hurler Josh Beckett tanked it Thursday night in the Olde Towne Team’s loss. Beckett was 9-0 entering the contest. No more.
Now with the San Francisco Giants coming in for a weekend series at Fenway, it’ll be up to Julian Tavares, the Sox number five starter, to try to stop the bleeding. Tavares has done a yeoman job in place of Jon Lester, who’s in the minors coming back from a bout with cancer.
And of course the Red Sox hurlers – Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield, tabbed to start the other two games versus the Giants – will have to face Major League Baseball’s major league embarrassment Barry Bonds, of flaxseed oil and arthritic balm fame, in his quest to steal the all-time career homerun record from Hammerin’ Henry Aaron.
Thank God Bonds is still eight homers away from the sacred 755 mark established by Aaron, one of the game’s all-time nice guys. I don’t think Bondomatic Man, a/k/a Watermelon Head, will slam eight out, even in Fenway. But maybe Barry can slip some of his juice to the Sox, who look awfully anemic right now. Red Sox Nation awaits the other shoe dropping.
