Oh man, that was a bad afternoon

So, what do you do when you get swept by your deepest enemies? You go out and sleep with a total rebound, no matter how horrid they may be, of course. It’s an extension of self-loathing. An extension of the depression.

Ummm, if the Sox can rebound like Nick Lachey, let’s just say things will be OK. If not? Trouble city.

An extension of the horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach, punctuated by brief moments of regret and excitement.

After all, now that the dismal performance of the last three days is finally over, isn’t that what the Sox need? Brief moments of excitement? The way the Sox are hitting, the Orioles will provide plenty of excitement themselves. The Yankees? They had entirely too much excitement for the moment.

Is Boston in trouble of missing the playoffs? Not at the moment. Still, the results of the past three days have to be significantly more than disconcerting. Let’s take a look at the rundown, shall we? The Sox: 1) Were swept by their division rivals, the only team with any sort of a shot at catching them in the division, 2) Scored a grand total of six runs in three games, 3) Failed to get a hit until at least the sixth inning twice, 4) Wasted three quality starts from the team’s best starters, 5) Saw a key member of the back end of the bullpen - star setup man Hideki Okajima - get rattled by a team that he dearly needs to retire every time. It’s the second minor implosion for Okajima against the Yanks.

If Lachey’s chick is the New York bounce back, can we call this one a fair representation of Baltimore? We thought so.

Naturally, there were two different factors to take into account in the aftermath of the sweep. While it was an extremely encouraging sign to see Curt Schilling go deep into a game against New York while giving up just two runs, it was a serious worry to drop all three games. The possibility of facing the Yankees in the playoffs? At the moment it would look like a nightmare. That hardly means it will still look that way after New York visits Fenway in a couple weeks, but it certainly doesn’t help. And with Manny Ramirez’s back injury flaring up, who knows, maybe it will still look taht way in a few weeks.

So Red Sox, enjoy that rebound night. You may need to make it last for awhile … we hope.

– Cameron Smith