Angels Beat Red Sox in Frustrating Loss, 4-2

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Schilling, Manny, Lowell all had something to gripe about last night. (SawxBlog Illustration)

The Boston Red Sox lost to the the L.A. Angels last night 4-2 in what ended up being a rather frustrating night for the Sox. As each day rolls by in August you start feeling a little bit more the pressure of the pennant race and can have the ability to focus that much more on a loss then you normally would. Last nights game was disappointing, however you can' be too shocked that we actually lost a game. The Sox haven't been a very "sexy" team to watch play this year. We don't score 1,000,000 runs per game and the wins we do get don't seem to be too flashy. This can lead Sox fans to think we're not as good as our record states however I'd disagree with them. Our starting pitching is the best in baseball as is our bullpen. Our defense is ranked second in the league and our line-up, although it's had its struggles, is still one of the most feared in the bigs.

We certainly don't have as many dramatic victories as we've had in the past (except for the Mother's Day Miracle) and we're something like 1-39 when trailing in the eight inning on, which shows some inability to comeback in the late innings to say the least.

If I was managing last night I would have pulled Curt in after the 6th inning, despite his pitch count, and thrown Gagne in the 7th, Oki in the 8th, and Paps in the 9th. The whole reason we got Gagne was exactly for these situations right? Schilling pitched a great game for us considering, and against a very good first place team on the road out West. Tito may have mis-managed a bit, but I think we all have seen how Joe Torre has overused his 2-3 most trusted bullpen guys in the past and burnt them out by the time the season ends.

We have a deep bullpen, and everyone needs the work. I don't think you win at all costs right now because of the time left in the season, and the impact of overusing players may have in October. If this is a playoff game and Tito leaves Schilling in then I'm furious right now, but it wasn't. However this is Boston, and all people care about is what you've done lately, as in last night, and last night was a very frustrating loss.

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J.D. Drew Has A Posse Update

(SawxBlog Illustration)

I'm going to be tracking the progress of J.D. Drew now that I'm officially campaigning for him, and last night he got off to a not so bad start going 3/4. We'll see how this works out, and if you can post the above picture wherever you can we'll get some positive chi rolling Drew's way! J.D. Drew Has A Posse.

J.D. Drew's Numbers Since 08/06/07
Avg. 0.750 (3/4) -- OBP 0.750 -- RBI 0 -- BB 0 -- K's  1  -- SB 1

Comments

[Jim Reid]

at tonight angels red sox game i urge all Boston fans to bring a rally rat to the stadium

[Derek Hixon]

Rally Rat...I like it.

[gavin]

it kinda looks like he has a disease. im gonna retouch this and post it on my site tonight

[Derek Hixon]

Looks like he has a diesease? Have you seen how he's hit this year? Hah ha.