9/29/04 at Devil Rays L 9-4

I have to say that I'm a little concerned that Pedro didn't bounce back tonight. I think he probably pitched a little better than his line would suggest, but still not what could be considered a solid performance by any stretch of the imagination. For the Sox to win the East, I really felt that a sweep in Tampa was going to have to happen. They would have also had to have some help from the Twins, which did not happen either. After seeing how poorly they played against the Yanks tonight, I'm almost hoping that the Sox get to play them in the division series.

The game started out well enough, I nice double - base hit combo by Manny and Papi, but beyond that, the Sox didn't have much offense tonight. The one good piece of news is that it looks like Tek has broken out of his slump with a 2 for 4 effort. Trot continues to hit the ball well, and Damon got the night off so he should be well rested for the weekend.

It's pretty obvious that BK Kim cannot be counted on to do anything but pitch in the mop-up role. This shouldn't surprise anyone, since he has not pitched well in twelve months, and went 4 months without pitching at all over the summer. At least he can eat some innings and keep the relievers fresh that we will need to count on next week.

Day off tomorrow and the last regular season series kicks off on Friday. It's hard to believe that it nearly October, but here it is.