West Coast swings, injuries and near-losses [Edited]

It's hard to know just how to feel about the Red Sox right now. I've been reserving comment over the last week, in part because West Coast series are an increasingly impossible prospect as I grow older and more gainfully employed, and in part because I'm just not sure what to say.

They've won, what, three games since the All-Star Break? As an acquaintance of mine said to me this morning, "I'm used to them sucking up until the All-Star Break, not the opposite."

The image I get of the Sox when I think about the shape of their season so far is of that old staple image of Wile E. Coyote cartoons, where Wile E. has run about six feet off a cliff into thin air, but doesn't realize it right away, and then still has time to wave regretfully before plunging back to Earth. That's how it feels when you look back at the way the Red Sox were still putting together wins with popsicle sticks, glue, spit, bailing wire and half the PawSox roster just before the All-Star Break. Afterwards, it seems the injuries have finally caught up to them.

[Ed's note: paragraphs that had been here redacted for stupidity after later review. I will attempt to be more awake next time I operate the heavy machinery that is the Internet.]

The Sox still won last night. They still have the whole series ahead of them in Seattle. There are just too many variables at work here to know which way the roller coaster will go next.

Plus, the Commander returns tonight. And what did I say about that?

Comments

[SMP]

I love the Wile E. Coyote analogy!