Take a step back. Not a little step, either. A big step. Take a deep breath, adjust your Armani tie (loosen, not tighten) and move away from that windy, slippery edge. It looks tempting, but it's not worth it. Not yet, at least.
Let me pull out a cheesy line that we've all grown to love: keep the faith.
I'll put the facts out there:
1) Today sucked.
2) Yesterday almost sucked.
3) Friday was really sucky.
4) As a whole, this series sucked.
Let me put a couple more facts out there:
5) The Yankees are four games back in the AL East
6) There are seven more weeks of baseball left.
7) We aren't burning in hell yet.
I can not stress this enough: the season is not over yet. The Red Sox have 45 games left to play. By the end of the regular season, the Sox could be 49 games over the Yankees. Or they could be down 41 games. Sounds crazy and completely unlikely, but you know what? It's actually possible. Probable? Hell no - don't bet on it. But possible? Yes, it's completely possible.
The Sox are up by just four games, but did anyone think the lead would stay at 10 or 12 games for the rest of the season? Hell no. I'd rather have the Sox lose their enormous lead now and have time to gain their momentum back instead of breaking down right at the end and not having the steam to get through the end of the season. We knew it was going to happen, so why not now?
Don't get me wrong, though. This isn't a, "I'm throwing in the white towel" kind of post. It's a, "They were going to come back, duh" kind of post. The real battle starts now. The Yankees are playing up to their potential and the Sox, like every MLB team, are getting all the bad breaks at the completely wrong time.
The Sox won't have a .700 winning percentage every month. That doesn't matter. All that matters is that the Sox make the post-season. Obviously, I, like every other Red Sox fan, would love to see the Sox finally win the AL East. That can still happen. All we need do is be a half game better than the Yankees, Orioles, Blue Jays and Devil Rays. That's it and we can still fulfill our goal.
Here's another cheesy line for ya'll: it ain't over `till it's over.
I think we, collectively as Red Sox Nation, should remember that horribly cheesy, but completely true, statement.