The Red Sox are very close to being officially out of the race for the East. Last night the Yankees tapped Josh Beckett for 11 hits, while the Sox offense made Dustin Mosely look like someone who wasn't 28 with under 200 career innings of MLB experience. And the Sox weren't exactly in full run prevention mode on defense, as two errors made Beckett's job even harder.
Josh Beckett is not an Ace. He's too inconsistent. He wasn't smashed around last night, but the Yankees regularly got solid contact off him. There were errors, but 11 hits is 11 hits is 11 hits.
Jacoby Ellsbury still has yet to get a hit since coming off the DL. I'd like for Francona to drop him to 9th until he gets some sort of rhythm.
If the Sox lose this afternoon, then it'd be an 8 game deficit. That's not impossible to close with nearly 50 games left, but it's very unlikely, especially with no Youkilis or Pedroia.
What really hurts is that the Sox are missing a chance to gain ground on the Rays. Tampa Bay's lost 5 in a row, but the Sox haven't been able to gain much ground on them for the Wild Card.
We need to see something special from Jon Lester this afternoon. He faces 13-4 Phil Hughes at 2.
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