Seriously. Did that just happen? Really, are we sure it did?

Ugggh. Sox fans are so sick of these guys. Seriously.

Let’s try to focus on just how painful last night’s loss really was. The game was over. O-V-E-R over, like Okajima-Papelbon in the eighth and ninth over.

In fact, that’s just the problem. It wasn’t an Okie-Paps straight pick up in the eighth and ninth, because Okie had worked the seventh. Why Terry Francona was unwilling to give the ball to one of the other relievers in the seventh - sure he’d already used Mike Timlin and wasted Javier Lopez’s arm yet again, but Manny Delcarmen was still sitting out there, right? - we may never know. What we do know is that putting Okie out there an inning early was a mistake.

But what was an even bigger mistake was sticking with him in the eighth, rather than rolling the job over to the resurgent Eric Gagne, who pitched a strong ninth after the game had slipped away.

So, there’s your most painful loss since last August Sox fans. The question now becomes, will it lead to another collapse today? Or will Boston bounce back? Much of that may be determined by whether Papelbon can legitimately return a night after tossing a solid number of pitches. We know Okajima will have to ride the pine for a day, if not two. But Papelbon’s outing was brief enough he could come back if absolutely necessary.

Will he be needed? It’s likely. Josh Beckett heads to the mound looking to be the savior the team needs once again, and he finds himself in a possible Cy Young battle with Ching-Ming Wang (we’re not considering C.C. Sabathia here, but obviously he would also have to be a candidate). If Beckett can’t come through with good stuff, and serious innings, the team may be in serious trouble and - almost unbelievably - in jeopardy of losing their once seemingly indestructable division lead.

Will the cake keep crumbling? We don’t know. Will we be able to use the word “will” at least one more time to add to the annoying oral gesticulations thrown out throughout this frustrating postgame post?

No. Sorry. And let’s all hope we don’t have another of these tomorrow, right?

– Cameron Smith