Another night, another loss; 3 Sox fly home for tests

Sox lose 11th in last 13, 2-1 to A's

Another night means another loss for the artists formerly known as the A.L. East leaders. Although the rag-tag lineup and pitcher Josh Beckett gave it their all, the harsh truth is their all is not nearly good enough right now. Not even close.
The team had to have their injured mates on their minds, as Boston needed to reserve a private jet just to haul the injured back to Beantown. Papi went back for more tests, and has reportedly been admitted to Mass General again for overnight observations. On board were his teammates & buddies Manny and Willy Mo, who will both be examined by Sox docs tomorrow to fully determine the extent of their injuries.
It was against that somber backdrop that Beckett took the hill, and no one was sure how his blistered finger would hold up. Turns out it held up just fine, as Becks had one of his better games if the 2nd half, posting a nice line of 7IP, 5H, 2ER, 3BB, 4Ks, 0 HRs; he only allowed an RBI 2B by Eric Chavez in the 4th and a sac fly by Marc Ellis in the 5th.
But the same old problem that has plagued this team for weeks reared its ugly head again- failure to drive in runners in scoring position. The Sox left 12 men on base and half of them were in scoring position, 4 with 2 outs. But the anemic bats could not come thru with a clutch hit, save for Eric Windmill Hinske's 6th inning RBI single up the middle that scored Youk with Boston's 1st run since the 6th inning on Sunday! Carlos Pena had his first hit for his hometown team, Coco went 0-4 again and Dusty Pedroia went 0-3 and is batting .120 in his brief Sox career.
Top it all off with the news that the team is shopping Wells to a contender, and well it doesn't take a Mensa member to realize that means they're admitting THAT BOSTON ISN"T ONE!
Tito's spitting up blood, Papi, Manny & WMP are back home under doctors' care, and now Boomer, who has pitched very well of late (which is why he's going) is probably gone. Little wonder that I'm not taking comfort in the news that Tek, Trot and Gonzalez all are starting PawSox rehab stints. The playoff ship will have long sailed by the time they get here. Just ask the front office.

Next game: Today@ OAK, 3:30 PM, EST Schill (14-6, 3.95) vs. Zito (14-8, 3.64)
Pray Schill pitches a shutout!