After Boston was swept twice, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein walked into manager Terry Francona's office last week and asked him -- point blank -- to stop the bleeding.
Francona said no. He couldn't. He had bitten his cheek, see, and had spent the Red Sox's game Sunday at Seattle spitting blood into a towel. By the time Epstein came by afterward, Francona had filled two towels with blood and was working on a third. That's when Epstein asked Francona to please stop bleeding. True story.
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| Boston's dreadful August has all but ruined its playoff chances. (Getty Images) |
Neither is Boston's breakdown. It's not hysterical -- but it is starting to become historical.
A team with such an (unfair) payroll advantage over most of baseball has no business going into September with little postseason hope, but that's the way it is. An 8-21 August means Boston's playoff hopes are bleak at best. After losing 7-2 Wednesday at Oakland to suffer its third series sweep in two weeks, Boston is eight games behind the Yankees in the American League East, and 7½ games behind Chicago for the AL wild card.
If the Red Sox don't make the 2006 postseason -- if they don't even come close -- they will belong aside some of the game's most ridiculous losers, including Boston's massacre in 1978, the Philadelphia Phold of 1964 and Brooklyn's 1951 collapse.
The circumstances are different, but Boston's disintegration is that kind of bad. Those aforementioned three teams fell short of the playoffs despite huge leads late in the season. These Red Sox are falling short of the playoffs despite a huge payroll lead all season. The only loser that compares is the 2002 Mets, last in the NL East despite their $95 million payroll.
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Boston entered this season at $120 million, well behind the Yankees ($194 million) but far ahead of everyone else. The closest AL team, Chicago, was at $103 million.
The Red Sox have the No. 2 payroll in the AL, but are sixth of 14 teams in winning percentage -- and could end up in eighth or ninth. Their payroll is almost double that of Minnesota, yet Boston trails the Twins by six games in the wild-card standings. Not counting interleague play, which took place before Boston began gargling, the Red Sox are five games under .500 against the American League.
Every day seems to bring another ugly turn of events.
Fearsome slugger David Ortiz returned home early from Boston's West Coast trip with a heart problem; flaky slugger Manny Ramirez seems to have another kind of heart problem, one that manifests itself as a "sore knee;" rookie pitcher Jon Lester definitely has a bad back and now, according to the Boston Herald, might have cancer; overweight, underachieving pitcher David Wells is on the trading block, a sign that Boston's front office has followed Manny Ramirez and quit.
Boston's front office started this mess, you know. Epstein was superlative in putting together that 2004 World Series champion, but this spring he looked at his roster -- which featured two aging starting pitchers, Wells and Curt Schilling, and a glut of outfielders -- and traded 29-year-old starter Bronson Arroyo to Cincinnati for outfielder Wily Mo Pena.
Since March the Red Sox have been looking to rectify that mistake, an embarrassing search for pitching that had them siphoning retreads from bad AL teams, Cleveland (Jason Johnson) and Kansas City (Kyle Snyder). Johnson and Snyder went 3-6 for Boston.
History revisionists will say Boston was undermined by injury and bad luck, that the August ailments of Ortiz and Ramirez took away the best two run-producers in the American League. Let the record show that Ortiz and Ramirez played for most of August, combining for 165 at-bats. Boston's unraveling has coincided with catcher Jason Varitek's knee injury, true, but that's the thing about Boston's enormous payroll. For that kind of money, there should be high-quality depth. Or low-quality depth. Instead, there is schlock.
Sunday in Seattle, the Red Sox lineup included first baseman Kevin Youkilis in left, second baseman Mark Loretta at first, Triple A call-up Dustin Pedroia at second and Snyder on the mound. Javy Lopez, hitting .214 with two walks and 14 strikeouts since being acquired from Baltimore, was the catcher. The Red Sox were no-hit into the sixth, and lost 6-3 to bear a three-game sweep.
Boston has lost 12 of 14, and has a current six-game losing streak. When the Yankees swept Boston, the scoring tally was 49-26. In the past six games, the Red Sox have been outscored by an even uglier 34-9 margin. Boston is bad, people, and Boston is getting worse.
There's good news here, though. That day in Seattle? Francona eventually did stop the bleeding in his mouth. And to prevent future pulmonary embolisms, he takes a medicine called Coumadin.
As for what ails the Red Sox, there's only one cure. It's called the Heimlich.
