Brother, Can You Spare a Run?

Sooo... what did I miss?

'Kay, I guess since I've posted, the Sox picked up Eric Gagne (yay!) and then let him actually pitch (boo!) then beat the Angels in 3 (yay!) then went down 3 games to 1 against the Indians (boo!), then they won 7 games in a row to win the World Series (double yay!) and then they resigned Lowell (yay!) and Schilling (eh?) and restrained themselves from trading Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jed Lowrie, Justin Masterson, Michael Bowden, Old Ironsides, Quincy Market, and the cast of "Cheers" for Johan Santana (more yaying!).

Which just about catches us up.

A month into the season, the Sox are locked in a life-and-death struggle for first place in the AL East with a truly terrible foe: the Baltimore Orioles. Apparently, the immortal outfield of Luke Scott, Adam Jones, and Nick Markakis, the fiery leadership of Kevin Millar, the impending trade of Brian Roberts, and the rocket arms of Steve Trachsel, Jeremy Guthrie, and Brian Burres are what it takes to win in the East these days.

Clearly, both the Yankees and the Red Sox need to go back to the drawing board.

Nah, they'll be all right - we've weathered Baltimore springtime mirages before. Unfortunately, the Sox are currently fighting like Rocky in the second Creed fight, instead of like Rocky in the second Clubber fight - they're staying in it, but they're not landing the big punches they need to.

The recipe for catastrophe goes like this: take nine parts lack of run support, add six parts leaky bullpen, sprinkle liberally with injuries. Serve lukewarm.

The Big Worry, of course, is Big Papi. Is he still hurt? Is that Papi Shift really that effective? He is still second on the team in HRs, tied for first in RBIs, and alone in first for walks, so he's still doing most of the things he does that have made him who he is, he's just not doing it with a .300+ batting average.

The other trouble in River City is the distressing lack of run support. Two gems by Buchholz and Beckett were wasted this weekend when they were swept by the Dev- I mean, by the Rays, and outscored 10-5.

Even last night's (1-0) win over the Blue Jays required an essentially perfect pitching performance (thank you, Lester and Pap) and some bottom-of-the-ninth heroics to win the game. While it's nice to pull out a one-run game in the ninth, it's not necessarily a blueprint that any team can (or should) repeat at will.

The 2003-2005 Sox spoiled a lot of fans - I don't know if that kind of offensive juggernaut will ever come back, but this team should be able to score 5 a game and keep that many off the board.