8 hours and 40 minutes of my life i will never get back

for the love of all that is good & righteous. i don't know what the Red Sox did to so grandly offend the gods of baseball, but the faithful & devoted members of RSN should not have been dragged along that excursion into the depths of hell. i'm not even sure how it was *possible* to lose that badly.

oh, wait. yes, i am.

it's called Jason Johnson & Rudy Seanez in the original 3 hour-55 minute horror flick. the one where the Yankees trounced the Sox to the tune of 12-4. in what warped world do Mark Loretta & Eric Hinkse ("who??", you ask. "not heard this name here before..." well, stand by. getting to that.) get 3 doubles *each*, yet are able to cross homeplate but ONE TIME combined?? and if Javy Freaking Useless Lopez could possibly ever just catch the damn ball, i would be positively THRILLED. i swear to God, Matt Clement could sit behind home plate & take more pitches than Javy the Dud. (that's *dud*, Nichole. not 'dude'. ::giggling::) to quote Chad Finn--i too vow never to take Tim Wakefield or Jason Varitek for granted again. the only two somewhat positive outcomes to this game are that Rudy Seanez pitched in a game that was already so far lost that any damage he did was no worse than continuing to beat a spider with a shoe after you've already squashed it dead...and finally there is mercy & after being pulled from the game & sent to the showers, Jason Johnson is no longer in the Boston rotation.

so fine. they dropped the first game. did i really expect to win a game that JJ started? no. why would i? he did not have one single solitary win as a Red Sock.

i never ever thought there could really be a sequel though. and the Red Sox came out strong, scoring runs in each of the first 5 innings in the night game. i am so confused by the pitching that occured in game two though. what has happened to the once 5-0 rookie sensation?? i know he's only 22 years old & that he has very little experience under his belt & that there will be growing pains, but for cripes' sake! could he just throw a strike every now & then?! it's as if he forget how to locate his pitches all together! or in some more words of Chuck Finn: "Listen, kid: Throw. Thefrigginball. Over. The. Plate." and i am so baffled by the once fearsome Mike Timlin, who of late has apparently spent too much time talkng to the EZs while they hang out in the bullpen, because he sure can give up runs & lose some games these days. i was sufficiently impressed with one Ugly EZ, who must be scared or at least a little shaken up after watching JJ's head roll, because he may have been the most impressive reliever Boston used all day. no, really: 2.1 innings giving up only 2 hits, NO runs, walking 1 but striking out 2. and while he is nowhere near the formidable pitcher he was in 2004, it was good to see Keith Foulke step out onto the field & do some pitching, not giving up any ground to the Yankees either. it was a rough welcome-back outing, but his performance is nothing to be ashamed of. now if only he won't come up with back spasms today... the one other positive from game two? i think Joe Torre used up his entire bullpen in that game. i fact, some of them were called out in BOTH games. maybe they will be too tired to shut the Sox down by the end of this series.

and let's not forget that they couldn't make this a quick kill to mercifully end the misery. they decided to take the encore presentation a full 4 hours & 45 minutes in length, making it the longest 9-inning game in MLB history. brings new meaning to "slow & painful death".

so. 2 games lost already out of this 5 game series. the Red Sox fall to a distasteful...oh, who am i kidding...*painful* 3.5 back in the AL East. i am scarred & beaten down & pretty close to hopeless right now as a fan. and we get to do it all over again barely more than 12 hours after the last game ended. not to mention, i'm scared of today's matchup. who knows which Josh Beckett & Randy Johnson will show up to pitch today?? i have to say, i don't have much confidence that the gods will smile on Boston today after what transpired yesterday.

one *very* good thing that i promised earlier to come back to:

welcome to Boston, Eric Hinske! you've secured your spot in the hearts of RSN with quite a debut. we don't standing-O just anyone on their third ever at-bat in a Red Sox uniform. but i'll tell you right up front: you look like you belong here, you act like you belong here, heck your name even *sounds* like you've always been here & i am as happy to have you on this team as you are to be here. welcome aboard...and please *please* help us start bailing water out of this sinking ship...

since no one will shoot me (and believe me, i've asked...hell, i've *begged*), i will be the one watching the game as follows. someone tell me when it's over...