Microcosm of the Season: Game 152 Thoughts

Sox lose 2-6

-This was a game I have seen many times before. I have seen this type of performance far too often this season. Nearly everything reminded me of something bad from this season.

-Today: Sox manage only 2 runs.
Season: I hate to say I told you so, but the Sox put up another stinker offensively after a good performance. The first half wasn't as bad, but throughout the second half the Sox lacked the ability to put together two strong offensive performances. For every 10 run outburst, a 1 run showing undoubtedly would show. Yesterday they score 7, today 2. Awfully predictable; at this point it's like the tide rolling in or a celebrity marriage hitting the rocks.

-Today: Sox' starter looks alternately good and bad. At times Garland looked like our ace, but at other times he couldn't help but leave a ball hanging over the plate. 5 runs isn't terrible, but it's by no means good.
Season: The Sox starters have been ridiculously inconsistent. Not one pitcher performed well for the whole season. Jose started on fire, then sucked for a long stretch, and then was mediocre thereafter. Garland follwed Jose's performance but did it backwards. Freddy has turned it on as of late, maybe it's too cold for him to grow weed now. Javy, well, yes he has the 6th inning phobia to take care of. See the Bile File for notes on Buehrle.

-Today: The 'pen struggles.
Season: The 'pen struggles.

-Today: Pods starts, as does Sweeney. Thornton comes on, to only face a lefty. Neal Cotts gets an inning of work.
Season: I loved Ozzie the player, and I loved Ozzie the manager (at least last year's version). But I can't stand Ozzie's stubborness with his lineup. Whether it be continually playing Mack over BA in CF instead of over Nudnik in LF or sticking with Cliff Politte, Neal Cotts, and BMac in situations they weren't suited for, or using Matt Thornton as a LOOGY even though he's one of our top relievers, Ozzie has driven me insane with all the lineup changes he has made and hasn't made.

-Today: 3 GIDP's (all for Crede by the way), Pods leads off with a double and doesn't score.
Season: The Sox seemingly lost the ability to play Ozzieball or smallball or wahtever the hell you want to call it. The Sox somehow forgot how to move runners over and bring in those runners from third. Last year, anytime Pods leads off with a double, Gooch moves him over and he gets driven in. This year, I've seen leadoff triples get stranded in back to back games. I've seen bunts go over the backstop, but I've rarely seen the crisp execution we showed off last year.

-This game itself doesn't warrant a proper recap outside of what I've written to this point. If you're really interested in what happened, here's the box score but you might as well scrounge up recaps of our recent losses, because tonight was nothing out of the ordinary.
Instead of a proper recap, I'm throwing in the towel. (No that's not me in that picture)


I like to think at this site we're unduly optimistic, but I think I've finally come to grips with the fact that the Sox are D-U-N, done. (I'll gladly eat my words, or a slice of humble pie, or my feet if they prove me wrong, but I'm no longer hoping against hope).

So stick a fork in our Sox, they're done. They've been done for ages, but I've held onto hope that they'd find the magic of last season. They've been done, apparently, since Ozzie bad-mouthed that writer for the Sun-Times. The '05 Sox will forever be known as a bunch of over-achievers. We saw career years from nobodies like Hermanson and Politte, we got almost exclusively timely hitting, we made one run leads hold up like the Great Wall. The '06 edition are a study of contrast. These Sox were mashers that were prone to long droughts. They didn't have the stellar pitching of last year, in fact you couldn't even call the pitching this year mediocre. The Sox currently rank 7th in the AL, but are a mere .05 from dropping all the way down to 10th. This year's squad was just a tease. They were a group that looked untouchable on paper, an improvement on last year's team, but as the old cliche goes the game ain't played on paper. It's a pity, because a World Series on paper would have been much nicer than this year's failure. Blame it on what you like...the Sox lacked heart, they lacked desire, they lacked the ability to pitch, but once reaching that watershed mark of 27 games over .500, it's been totally downhill. All Sox fans had high hopes for the year, but instead of a repeat championship we continue the rather embarassing tradition of never making the playoffs in consecutive years. So '06 Sox, it was an interesting ride, it was a roller coaster ride and it took 5 years off the tail end of my life, but it has been memorable.

This is all I can muster now; there will be some official and better send-off coming from me at a later date (maybe).

It's been a pleasure writing about the Sox this past season. Thank to James, DickdaStick, and Pander for helping me with the writing. Thanks to all those that have commented and read my site; I hope to see y'all back at it again come next season.
I will be continuing the blog throughout the off-season (and the end of this season); I haven't decided in what capacity. I reckon I'll write about the playoffs, but once the World Series ends, I'm unsure the direction the site will go. We'll see what happens.

So at this point all I have to look forward to is the PtC race, although I'm choking just as the Sox did. I must give props to Fornelli, he may be a ways behind in the standings, but his Click% is probably the highest of us all.

Sox Record: 85-67