I was thinking to myself this morning: "As bad as the Sox were last night in game one, it's impossible for them to be even worse."
Wrong.
The Red Sox's offense was even worse than game one (despite one run), losing to the Angels 4-1 on Friday night.
Where the hell has the offense gone? No. Don't laugh. I'm serious.The Sox had four hits again for the second night in a row. The only run they scored was off a Jacoby Ellsbury triple. Victor Martinez knocked him in in the fourth inning to take the lead, but after that ... nothing.
Jered Weaver looked like Tom Seaver. He really didn't struggle at all with the Red Sox lineup. And why should he? The Sox are playing like a junior high squad at this point. It doesn't matter who the Angels throw out there, because in two games so far, everyone has handled the Sox without a problem.
Josh Beckett was pretty good until the 7th inning. He gave up some loud outs, but he got the job done. Then the 7th inning came around and he just unraveled. He couldn't hit the strikezone if he was 30-feet, 3 inches away from the plate. It's funny how he lost it, considering he hadn't walked a batter through the first three innings.
But runs, runs, runs. Bill Wagner came in (a little too late) and got out of the inning, but the damage had been done.
The Red Sox offense tried to get something started in the 9th, but nope. Kevin Youkilis doubled and Jason Bay walked, but they were stranded.
There it is: 4-1 Angels and they're up 2-0 in the series. All because of really, really bad offense. Jon Lester and Josh Beckett weren't even that bad. They weren't amazing, but their performances should have been good enough with just an average Red Sox offense. Instead, it goes in the books as two losses.
I never called game two a must win. It would have been nice to win, but it's not impossible to come back from a 0-2 hole. Actually, only four teams have ever come back down 0-2 to win a series. Two of those you might remember.
In 1999, the Red Sox did it. In 2003, the Red Sox did it. Can the Red Sox do it 2009, too?
Sure. Why the hell not?