有時候看看對手方面的說法，也蠻有意思的。
這篇來自 Boston Globe，是第三戰後刊登的，
簡直是哀鴻遍野。有趣的是Boston Globe的母公司，
其實就是 New York Times.
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2006/08/20/
getting_that_sinking_feeling/
Getting that sinking feeling
By Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Columnist | August 20, 2006
The Red Sox brass set sail on John Henry's big boat last night. The owner
held a party to celebrate the engagement of his star general manager, Theo
Epstein. Nice gesture. Toasts all around, no doubt. A three-hour tour. And no
cheap jokes about tying cement blocks to the ankles of any Sox pitchers and
tossing them overboard.
It was undoubtedly nice to get away for a few hours, but there is no safe
place for Epstein and Sox management at this moment -- not even on the high
seas. The SS Red Sox is sinking fast in the American League. The sun no
longer shines on the handsome head of young Theo (wonder if he's signed his
much-celebrated contract yet). The computer-geek management style has been
thoroughly exposed in the last two days and there's a perfect storm brewing
upstairs on Yawkey Way.
The way things are going, Young Theo might don that gorilla suit again, but
this time he might need it to hide from an angry Nation of paying customers
who want to know why nothing was done at the trade deadline and how you try
to win a pennant with no lefty in the bullpen and a collection of dead arms
and dead presidents (Mr. Van Buren, I presume) posing as major league
pitchers.
Three of the five crucial games against the Yankees have been played, and the
numbers are more ghastly than snakes on a plane. The Yankees embarrassed the
Sox on national television again yesterday, 13-5, which makes for an
aggregate score of 39-20 in the first three games of this make-or-break
series. Boston's pitching staff has walked 28 in 27 innings, which qualifies
as both embarrassing and unprofessional.
We are now officially in the middle of ``Son of Massacre" weekend. In 1978,
it was 42-9 over four games. The Sox were outhit, 67-21, and committed 12
errors while losing four straight at home to the Bombers. The first three
games of this series have been equally hideous, and young Theo, who was
unavailable after yesterday's carnage, is getting his lunch fed to him by one
Brian Cashman as the Sox threaten to suck all the wind out of what's left of
summer.
Oh, and is anybody rethinking that Johnny Damon decision now? On a day when
Coco Crisp was rested, Damon continued his Big Bang tour through Boston with
three more hits, all doubles. Damon is 9 for 18 this weekend, with three
doubles, a triple, two homers, eight RBIs, and five runs. Quite a statement.
Henry was not around at the end of the game, but CEO Larry Lucchino, biting
his lip, said, ``This is not the best time for me to offer comment. I'm a
little agitated, as the average fan is.
``Everybody feels a sense of disappointment about these first three games. I
would understand if the manager is keenly disappointed in the way these first
three games have gone. It's still a long season. Come and talk to me later."
Manager Terry Francona, ever the company man, will not state the obvious and
tell us, ``How am I supposed to beat these guys with this pitching staff?"
but he is clearly as frustrated as a lot of Red Sox fans. Yesterday he
watched the talented and hard-headed Josh Beckett walk nine (most by a Sox
pitcher since Rogelio Moret in 1975) while giving up a career-high nine
earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. Beckett's ERA is 5.35 and he looks like he
needs to stop listening to Dave Wallace and Al Nipper and go see Dr. Phil. To
his credit, Beckett answered all questions and assumed full responsibility
for his outing (``unacceptable, brutal").
If you're still scoring at home, the Red Sox have lost 10 of their last 14
games and have gone from four games ahead of the Yankees to 4 1/2 behind
since the Fourth of July. They are 4 games behind the White Sox in the
wild-card hunt. Forty games remain, but it's not going to matter if the Sox
don't go to battle with major league pitchers. Too-good-to-be-traded Manny
Delcarmen coughed it up in relief again yesterday and was part of 11 straight
balls and two bases-loaded walks in a five-run Yankee sixth.
The last time the Yankees scored in double digits in three games in one
Fenway series was in 1927 when the Pinstripes had guys named Ruth and Gehrig
in the lineup. The Yankees have batted around five times in three games. One
wonders if perhaps even cyberowner Henry has seen enough spread-sheet
baseball for one season.
Odd that Henry would be celebrating Epstein's engagement at a time when the
honeymoon is officially over for the most popular and bulletproof general
manager in Boston sports history.
The cruise is over and so is the free ride for Theo. No disgrace in that, it
happens to all of them, but the Sox need a quick turnaround to keep Epstein
out of the shark-infested waters that devoured the likes of Lou Gorman and
Dan Duquette.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is
dshaughnessy@globe.com.
c Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
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