Slowly, steadily, with every latest setback or miscue — like how Curt Schilling, amid a strong performance Tuesday, left up a pitch to the Tigers’ Sean Casey for a damaging two-run double — it feels as if the Red Sox’ aspirations for 2006 are inexorably slipping away.
Although this team can’t be completely written off (ask Jeter & Co.), Boston’s flagging play through mid-August, plus the way it has excelled mostly against the hapless Orioles and National League opponents, hardly inspires confidence. One looks for a turning point — the rousing August 2 comeback against the Indians with two outs in the ninth, or Mike Lowell’s gutsy performances — only to reel from the latest in a string of hurtful defeats. Even last Sunday, as Jonathan Papelbon labored to nail down an eventual sweep over Baltimore, it seemed as if the Sox were hanging on by a string.
The 162-game baseball season is a grind, of course, and advancing to the post-season requires not just talent but luck. While some of the savants calling in to sports talk-radio can be routinely counted upon to go ballistic after a two-game mid-season losing streak, it’s no secret that general manager Theo Epstein viewed this as something of an in-between building year in the Sox’ long-term quest to establish Yankee-like hegemony over the AL East.
It helps as a baseball fan to appreciate philosophy and to keep a dose of humility close at hand. Then again, being patient is rarely easy. With the Yankees’ lead over the Sox having grown this week from one to three games, one muses fancifully about Josh Beckett putting it together, Schilling and David Wells continuing to pitch like we know they can, and Tim Wakefield riding to the rescue. With the New Yorkers coming to town this weekend, we know we can get to Mariano, and A-Rod’s sloppy fielding is our best friend.
We can look back on the season and recall any number of memorable highlights, from Beckett hitting a home run in Philadelphia to Schilling notching his 200th career win, from Boston’s dazzling defense to the sunny aura and hitting heroics of the inimitable David Ortiz.
Still, considering the evidence to date, we revert to worried form, conditioned by years of promising starts and late-season fades. As summer begins to slip from our grasp, we can’t help but fear not being there in the fall.
