…last night’s game gets a two-word review: shit sandwich.
I figgered Brad Penny would rise to the occasion, prove the naysayers wrong and crank out the game of his career. Instead, he folded like a deck chair, giving up 8 runs over 4 innings and reminding us all that if the Red Sox ever do happen to make the playoffs, he needs to be as far away from the starting rotation as possible. I’m talking tied-to-the-wings-of-the-space-shuttle far.
Also, if I were Terry, I would have left him out there to suffer his way through the entire game just to spare every other arm in the ‘pen and make sure he heard it from the crowd for a full nine innings.
I am man enough to admit that I thought we might actually stage the comeback of the year in the bottom of the sixth, when we loaded the bases with nobody out and just nine runs back. But then A-Gon grounded into a double play and that fantasy was promptly flushed away.
Amazing how far we’ve fallen since that 8-0 start against the Yanks. Watching the last few Sox/Yanks mash-ups, it sometimes feels like we don’t even belong on the same field as New York. This was an embarrassment of the highest order — a 20-11 pantsing in our own house, no less — and I have to admit I’m not getting a warm and fizzy vibe for Burnett vs. Tazawa.
How the Sox bounce back this afternoon will speak volumes. Stay tuned.
