We knew that the team wasn't going to keep up their pace going into this series. We knew that eventually we may slow a bit (no team stays hot forever). But the way these games were lost was simply unacceptable.

First, the hitting. For the series the Sox batters went 31-106 at a .292 clip. The Jays hitters went a combined 25-98 for a .255 average. Tell me what's wrong with this picture? How do you out hit a team by 37 points and lose all three? I'll tell ya, anticlutch! When runners got themselves into scoring position the Jays came thru, we didn't.

But the hitting wasn't the only problem over the weekend, with the exception of a great start for Nomo on Friday and another great one from Wakes yesterday, pretty much everyone else simply sucked.

Pete Schourek should NOT be in baseball anymore. He is awful! How pathetic is it that your lefty specialist cannot get lefties out? Pete, you suck! I hope you're reading this, if you really want the Sox to win, you'll do us a favor and retire. Can you tell I'm tired of this guy?

How long is Sang Lee going to rot in AAA? His numbers were being discussed over on the message board, and their decent. But whether their great, or even if he's getting his head kicked in down there, how much worse can he do? Why not give him a shot? Heck, if he blows the game it'll be nothing different that what Schourek has been doing all season.

On Saturday Frank Castillo strayed from his season norm getting smacked around for seven runs in an inning and a third. These types of things are going to happen from time to time. I've even said before that I was expecting very little from him. Other than yesterday Frank has been pretty solid, so he doesn't deserve to be jumped all over just yet.

One other thing about the hitting before I wrap this rant up. We hit four home runs as a team on Saturday and still lost. Why? They were all solo. If we could have just got one runner on for each of those we walk away with the win. UGH!

Like I said earlier, we knew that pace wasn't going to keep and no matter how the games were lost we'd still we disappointed. But we should have, at worst, taken at least one form that series. Now we find ourselves in the midst of a losing streak and only one game up on the Evil Empire. We knew the D-Rays wouldn't help us.

Speaking of Tampa, they head into town starting tonight for a four game set. This is no time to get complacent, 9-0 vs this team or not. David Cone needs to have himself a great start and be the stopper.

For the month we're 14-8, still way ahead of last years dreadful June Swoon. Six remain for the month (this series and then two in Toronto). The 'Plan' can still be reached, but we have to first get out of this funk and go 4-2 in these final six. No reason we can't do it, but with us possibly being the cause of Toronto getting hot, we'll probably need 3 of 4 in this series. If we can get a few runs for Cone and grab this one tonight, with Pedro and Nomo going the next two, I'm confident we can do it.

paul@redsox2000.com