Posted on 09/22/2005 9:48:33 PM PDT by maineman
AL East NY Yankees (10) 89 63 .586 -- Boston Redsox 88 64 .579 1.0
Wild Card Cleveland (9) 90 63 -- 9 Games Left Boston Redsox 88 64 1.5 10 Games Left
Jerry Beach - Scout.com September 22, 2005 at 6:20am ET The Red Sox lost their stranglehold on first place in the AL East Wednesday, when they lost 7-4 to the Devil Rays in St. Petersburg, FL and fell a half-game behind the surging Yankees, who beat the Orioles 2-1, and a game behind the Indians, who whipped the stumbling White Sox 8-0, in the wild card race.
Considering the Sox spent just one day out of first place between June 24 and Wednesday, the big question in Boston today will likely sound something like this: How could the Sox be on the verge of such an epic collapse?
A better question: How did they spend that long in first place in the, well, first place?
If the Sox manage to recover from this current mini-funk-and they are on the outside looking in today in the AL East and wild card races due more to the blistering pace set by the Yankees (32-16 since Aug. 1) and Indians (34-12 since Aug. 1) than their own incompetence; the Sox are a not-so-shabby 29-19 themselves since Aug. 1-and make the playoffs, it will qualify as a minor baseball miracle given the tattered state of their pitching staff.
The Sox rank 11th in the American League in ERA at 4.77. According to research conducted by Manchester Union-Leader baseball writer-and Diehard staffer-Alex Speier, no team has ever won the World Series with an ERA higher than 4.76 (Yankees in 2000). Since division play began in 1969, Speier reported only two teams have ever won the World Series after finishing in the bottom half of their league in ERA-the 1987 Twins (10th in the 14-team AL) and the 1992 Blue Jays (ninth).
In addition, Tim Wakefield and Bronson Arroyo -the top two Sox pitchers in ERA and the only starters who have made yet to miss a turn in the rotation-are on pace to post a higher combined ERA than the top duos on previous pitching-challenged world champions.
Wakefield and Arroyo are 28-20 with a 4.19 ERA. Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte went 32-17 with a 4.03 ERA for the Yankees in 2000, Jack Morris and Juan Guzman went 37-11 with a 3.23 ERA for the Blue Jays in 1992 and Bert Blyleven and Frank Viola went 37-22 with a 3.47 ERA for the Twins in 1987.
Of course, those Yankees, Twins and Blue Jays did not have a wild card quite like Curt Schilling, whose struggles this season-bouncing between the rotation and the closer's role, Schilling is 7-8 with nine saves and a 5.89 ERA-have adversely affected both the rotation and the bullpen. Nobody embraces the big stage quite like Schilling, who enjoyed his best outing of the season in a must-win game against the Yankees Sept. 10 and put together another strong start in a similarly vital game against the Devil Rays Tuesday, and if he rises to the occasion like he did last year, the entire dynamic of the Sox' rotation changes.
But aside from Wakefield, nobody in the Sox rotation is a candidate to throw a complete game. And the Sox bullpen has endured its share of issues this season, as we'll discuss Friday.
Oh ye of little faith!
Go Papi !!
Oh ye of little faith!
I've spent 30 'keeping the faith'. With the exception of LAST year, this is typical Boston Redsox Baseball. They bring you to the end and BAM it's over. Ugh. And next year Damon will be gone along with Wakefield. Schilling should NEVER had taken the mound the other night, poor call. OK I'll hang on, Redsox need to sweep the Yankees this weekend (I can't even keep a straight face typing that) or hope the Indians lose 2 of 3. Deck is too stacked, they blew it....AGAIN.
***ADD 'YEARS' AFTER 30. SORRY. caps off. lol.
Bump
maineman,I've been around for 73 years and I still have faith. 2004 taught me something.
I had an uncle who died in the early 90's still waiting for the Sox to win the series.
I've been around 41 years...Sox fan since 75.
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