Not the best effort the Sox have put forth, from the manager on down. How Wily Mo Pena doesn’t see an at-bat and how Wake hangs around for so long with clearly sub-par stuff are beyond me. Also, you’ll have to pardon me but I really do derive some sort of perverse enjoyment from seeing David Ortiz, Trot Nixon and Jason Varitek fail miserably with the game hanging in the balance while Manny Ramirez single-handedly kept his mates in the game. Poor Pete the Meat must have been so confused watching that unfold this evening.

Anyway, sorry for my prolonged absence. I have taken a new job and have been traveling for two weeks straight and am just now getting my life back to normal here in Boston. I plan on continuing to update this place as often as I can and with the same effort to which those that stop by regularly have grown accustomed. I’m just not sure it will be possible. You see, I have made a significant stride forward in my career, but with that comes added responsibility and less time for things like, well, blogging. I refuse to say that I will be posting less for sure or that I will be posting lesser quality. I just don’t know. All I know is that I have a smaller pie of free time to divvy up and so we’ll just have to see how much of it I feel like devoting to this site.

As for my feelings at the moment about the Sox, well, I feel really good about them. While both guys are playing over their heads, it is pretty evident that Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis are going to be net assets, something none of us was positive about at the beginning of the season. Even when those two come back to earth, David Ortiz should improve. It took a while but this offense is hitting like we all thought it might. There are some questions in the bullpen for sure but with the way Craig Hansen is dealing this season, maybe he could help. Alex Gonzalez has been pretty bad at the plate but is a dazzling shortstop in the field. Yes things are going well at the moment, but with no pitcher really exceeding expectations, David Ortiz and Jason Varitek struggling and Coco Crisp on the way back, it is hard to find too much to be all that concerned about with this Sox club. They’re a rock solid team, and a legitimate contender to compete for their second World Championship in three years.

I’ll try and get back on a regular game recap routine soon. Thanks for continuing to stop by.

PS - Predictably, the run differential spread between the Sox and the Yanks has narrowed considerably since I was taken to task for claiming that the Yanks squandered a chance to put more wins up while they were playing so well. Now they employ Terrence Long. The point was simple and pretty easy for the rational minds out there to comprehend. When your Pythag shows you to be a 111 win team and you’re hovering around .500, you’ve squandered an opportunity. Anyway, I thought our 100,000th unique visitor was a sign that we had accomplished something but I have a new favorite sign that we have reached a new level here. We have our very first troll. Awwwwww.