DON'T PANIC!!!

PEOPLE!! CALM DOWN!!! ITS GOING TO BE OK!!

Joking aside, that was a huge let down. Poop like this does happen over the course of a 162 game season. The trick is to avoid it happening very often.

Curt Schilling pitched a masterpiece tonight. In seven innings he struck out seven and didn't walk a batter. Hideki Okajima did what Hideki Okajima does in the eighth inning, setting the heart of the A's lineup down in order (YAWN...). The stage was set for the man Surviving Grady calls... The Papelbot.

But Jonathon Papelbon just didn't have it tonight. He gave up a two run homer to Travis Buck (of the .200 hitting Bucks) on a pitch that was supposed to be around the shoulders. Unfortunately it was right down the middle, and Buck crushed it. Papelbon was able to get out of the inning by getting a pop-up and a grounder to short, but lead had already been lost. In the tenth, Brenden Donnelly continued the crapitude by giving up two doubles to start the inning, and the A's had their winning margin, 5-4.

It was bound to happen at some point. The Red Sox bullpen was not going to go through the year with a 1.00 ERA. Unfortunate that the bullpen meltdown had to come when the game was close, which cost the team the game. The Red Sox had their chances though. Primarily Coco Crisp who came up with runners on second and third and two outs in the ninth. A hit wins it, but Coco grounded out to first.

The Red Sox had Ortiz, Manny and Youkilis up in the bottom of the tenth, but couldn't get anything going against A's closer Huston Street. Ortiz just missed the first pitch thrown to him, hitting it a ton but foul down the right field line. He was clearly waiting on the first pitch fastball and was just out ahead of it. After that he (wisely) didn't see another fastball and eventually popped up to short right field. Manny then swung and missed on a nasty 3 and 2 slider that was out of the strikezone. Youkilis hit the ball hard to the base of the Green Monster in left, but Shannon Stewart caught it against the wall. Game over, good guys lose.

AL East: The Yankees crushed Texas (though uber-prospect Phil Hughes hurt himself in the process; it looks like a hamstring injury), and Toronto and Tampa got crushed by Cleveland and Minnesota respectively. Baltimore lost to Detroit, 5-4. The Yankees picked up a game on everyone in the division, meaning they are 5.5 games behind division-leading Boston. The Red Sox lead the Blue Jays and the rest of the division by 3.0 games.

Tomorrow: The Red Sox finish up their two gamer with the A's. Josh Beckett vs.
Chad Gaudin at 7:05pm.

P.S. - I stole the 'don't panic' graphic from the excellent (if evil) Replacement Level Yankees Weblog. Thanks guys, and hope you don't mind a little irony now and again.