It was a nice little run, this Yankee-chasing business but it is time to move on. For the ninth consecutive season, the Red Sox will not win the division. They have, however, accomplished what any team’s goal ought to be and that is to qualify for postseason play.

The Twins handed the Yankees two games yesterday and Pedro Martinez was shelled in Tampa Bay as the great Pedro lost his fourth consecutive start. If I am going to come on here and get all dreamy-eyed about the potential of the Red Sox lineup, I also had better shoot straight about the question marks surrounding this Red Sox pitching staff. Despite a dominant month from Curt Schilling, the Red Sox have a team E.R.A. of 4.71 - this compared to a season-long figure of 4.19. As for Martinez, his September regression has been particularly alarming when you consider that in August, the 1999-2000 Pedro had reappeared, sub-1.00 WHIP, 11+ K/9 and all. Sure he wasn’t facing the stiffest competition but this fact alone fails to account for such stark September mediocrity.

And so now, instead of dreaming about what could have been - a triumphant steamroll through the postseason, offensively bludgeoning the opposition while serving up absolutely no soup on the pitching side, Red Sox fans must now come to the reality that the healthy-Nixon-lineup is no longer a luxury. While we can certainly expect considerable improvement from Martinez, it appears that the current state of the Sox staff has necessitated the scary-good lineup I have prophesied the last couple of days.