So Tampa Bay just swept the Red Sox in Tampa to take a 3.5 game lead and the Sox llimp into the Bronx tonight to play their arch-rival New York Yankees.  Things certainly appear to be grim.  Will this thus-far disappointing season end with the Sox not making the playoffs? 

With a little help from Barstool Sports, consider the trainwreck that was the first half of the season:

  • The schedule makers did them no favors as they had to start the season with a road trip that took them halfway to Neptune, play two games that counted, then fly from Toyko to LA to play games that didn’t count, then go to Oakland, Toronto, Uruguay, Oslo, Fallujah and eventually back to Boston.
  • The best clutch pitcher in baseball and HOF’r opened the season on the disabled list, and eventually had to shut it down for the season.
  • Their ace missed spring training and spent time on the disabled list.
  • Their No. 2 starter did too.
  • Their 3rd basemean, the World Series MVP, got hurt.
  • The No. 3 hitter, the most clutch hitter in baseball, is out for at least a month and probably more.
  • And prior to getting hurt he started the year with the worst slump of his career.
  • The cleanup hitter, the best hitter in baseball, just shoved the traveling secretary for not splitting the green and yellow M&M’s.
  • The future HOF catcher is hitting below the Mendoza line.
  • The centerfielder was suspended for a week.
  • The shortstop leads the majors in errors, comes to the plate crying, and literally can’t buy an RBI.
  • The $70 million RF has been out of the lineup at various times with a sore back, tight quad, bad haircut, Dave Mathews tickets, vertigo, fever for the flavor of Pringles, Jewish holidays and menstrual cramps.
  • The phenom who pitched a no-hitter last year is rehabbing in the minors.
  • The ace, who last year pulled out opponent’s entrails and wore them as a necktie, is 7-5.
  • The bullpen setup guys who were lights out last year have struggled.
  • The all world closer has already blown more saves than he did all of last year.

All of which makes the case that the 2008 Red Sox season is an unmitigated disaster.

Wait. Strike that. They’ve won 50 games, the 4th most in the majors. They’re on pace to win 98, which is 2 more than they won last year when they were box-to-wire the best team in baseball.  They’ve got pitching prodigies other teams would kill to have >coughcough, coughfor whom they don’t have room on the major league roster.

I’m going to go pay attention to college football and the NFL for a while, someone let me know when the Sox find out who they are playing in the World Series.