Empyreal Environs

Game 111: August 8, 2006
Red Sox (65-46), 4
Royals (39-73), 6
L: Jon Lester (5-2)
W: Luke Hudson (5-3)
H: Jimmy Gobble (6)
H: Joel Peralta (10)
H: Joe Nelson (5)
S: Ambiorix Burgos (17)

A Few Meditations for Discomfited Red Sox Fans

1. Stop complaining about not making any deadline deals. Remember how Jeff Suppan and Scott Sauerbeck worked out for us in 2003.
2. Fifty-one. That’s the number of regular season games left. It’s one game.
3. David Ortiz’s 1,000th hit came in the form of a seventh-inning home run to bring his team to within one run of the lead.
4. It’s not like Jose Offerman is on the team any longer.
5. Bronson Arroyo is winless in his last nine starts. He did have two quality starts in the mix, but his monthly ERA nearly doubled from June to July.
6. Kevin Youkilis is able to play both corners with near virtuosity.
7. Four hundred fifty-one. The distance in feet of Peña’s fourth-inning four-bagger, the 13th longest in Kauffman Stadium history.
8. Alex Gonzalez, aside from his stellar defense, has been above the Mendoza line for quite a while now and has a .284 batting average, .333 OBP, and .434 slugging, a good .40 above his career averages.
9. Dave Wallace is back and patting his pitchers on the mound.
10. Look where the “win now at any cost” Yankee philosophy has gotten them. Well, okay, they’re leading the division, but the Red Sox organizational talent is now in the top ten according to Baseball America. Meanwhile, the Yankees were ranked fifth in 2002 and have plummeted to 24. Do you want to be a fan of winning like them or a fan of a team that wins on its own terms?
11. One year, ten months, and 12 days. Was October 2004 really that long ago?