Again, more good than not to report from the weekend but sustained strong play, or at least something resembling a win streak, continues to evade the Sox. The Sox won the two games they would have had no excuse losing (Pedro and Schilling’s starts) and lost the game one might have expected them to (Wolf vs. Arroyo). Still, would a win against a rusty Randy Wolf be too much to ask? Is passable defense an impossibility? I remain more eager for the impending 23-7ish streak, whenever it may come, than I am chagrined by the uninspired play.

Anyway, I attended yesterday’s game and here are my impressions…

- Jim Thome’s 2nd inning fly ball was the highest I have ever seen. Contact just 1/32nd of an inch higher on the baseball and it hits the center field scoreboard. I’m serious.
- Pat Burrell and David Bell put some nice swings on those home runs. I sincerely believe this Phillies team is close to putting things together.
- Of course Larry Bowa doesn’t really help things much. In the top of the 5th, trailing 4-3 with one out, Bowa decided to send Placido Polanco with Bobby Abreu hitting and Jim Thome on-deck. Polanco was caught stealing and Bobby Abreu promptly followed with a wall-ball double to left center that almost surely would have plated Polanco. Thome followed with a strikeout and the Sox were out of the inning. Why one would ever attempt a steal with the National League’s most fearsome 3-4-5 batting is so far beyond me I can’t articulate it. I said to my pal Brian, “I am more offended by the tactic than I am pleased by the result.”
- Why was Bobby Abreu playing so shallow on Manny’s 3rd inning double?
- With all due respect to Jason Michaels, I am pretty sure Doug Glanville catches Nomar’s double right after Manny’s in that same 3rd inning.
- Great showing by the Philly faithful at Fenway this weekend. What a sports town!

- One last thing. David Pinto perceptively observes that the chief reason the Sox have failed to score as often as, say, their RC27 or EQA might suggest is that their 5-7 batters have slugged in the low .400’s. Makes sense that if the big RBI spots fail to produce extra base hits, you will under-perform run expectations. Well obviously help has arrived in the form of Nomar and Nixon, now manning two of those three spots in the batting order. Expect run totals to increase going forward.