Watching the Sox stumble through the last three games [that botched run down play?!? Oh, Holy Christ!] it has become increasingly clear that these guys need to find, as Jack B and Kyle G once so eloquently put it, “Inspirado.” That spark. That fire. That magic. And they need to find it fast. Like, now and shit. Or else, as Apollo Creed once told Rocky, “There is no tomorrow.”
Manny needs to start clobbering the ball again. Tek needs to recapture that winning streak-approved swing. Bellhorn needs to… well, whatever the hell he was doing so freaking magnificently in key situations before this funk descended. Tito needs to use the “five rule” with Wakefield, which dictates that once Timmy gives up five runs, he’s out. I don’t care if it’s the first inning — hit the bricks, Pally. Because five runs is enough to let you know the knuckler ain’t knuckling, yet you’re still in the game. ‘Tis much better than, say, waiting until the inevitable the-game-is-officially-out-of-reach home run. And for the postseason, I don’t see how you could have Wake pitching anywhere but out of the pen.
If we are to win the Division — which, mathematically, can still happen. Thanks, Toronto! — we must find Inspirado, and find it bloody quickly. And tonight, with Schill on the Hill, seems the perfect place to start.
Myself, I find Inspirado in these photos from the frontlines of last weekend’s series in the Bronx. Thanks to Matthew for letting us “become him,” if you will, by seeing Yankee Stadium from his no doubt alcohol-impaired point of view.
