(Okay, at the end of the season, if the Sox have won the division, you can come back here and mock us. Or me, I might be the only one who ends up posting here.)
First of all, tonight: Wells has been crappy on the road all year, and particularly so at Toronto. Towers has been their best pitcher for a while now, and hasn't been hit hard in a while. He's got a lower ERA than Wells, is at home, and has done better recently.
Damon is out for tonight, and we don't know when he'll be back.
The Blue Jays have beaten us 9 of 13, and we still have 5 more games with them.
As for the rest of the season: the bullpen sucks and is paper thin. We're counting on old, overused Timlin and Papelbon, who has barely pitched in the majors and seems to only have one pitch at this point.
The offense has been great this year, but every offense slumps at some point. The sox are averaging about 4 runs a game in September.
We don't get a day off until the 22nd, at which point we will have played 30 straight games. Coming at the end of the season, this wear and tear could really impact performances negatively. Varitek is slumping lately, maybe due to this, or maybe because it's not realistic to expect him to hit like Mickey Cochrane all year long.
We're only up two on the Chokers in the loss column. They are capable of going on long hot streaks at any time. They have a great offense and a lights-out closer. Small has sold his soul to the devil in order to become a dominant major league pitcher for this year only. Randy Johnson is starting to pitch better, is 4-0 vs. the Sox and will surely face us in the last series.
The 17 runs they put up last night might be the start of another one of their hot streaks.
There are optimistic views that might counter almost all of these points, but this thread isn't the place to point them out. This is the woe-is-me, bad luck Schleprock, sky-is-falling thread. Those who hate that kind of thing can just ignore it. Others who see the glass half empty can join in here.
