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Sometimes I hate being right

By The Cheat
The Tribune website (I'm not sure it will be the same headline in the paper) reads "Wait until bats break out." But, pessimistic (realistic?) Sox fan that I am, I can't yet bring myself to accept that the pitching won't fall apart, which is why each loss with the pitching we've been seeing hurts all the more. The Sox can't keep waiting to "hit their stride," as Hawk would say. They've got to put W's in the bank for the day when Contreras breaks down, or Danks starts pitching like a rookie, or Joe Crede finally admits that surgery may have been a good idea.

[...]

It's not time to be happy the Sox aren't further behind.

That quote was written by me just less than two weeks ago. Since then, we've seen Contreras start throwing a "crazy-assed floater" and be compared to El Duque (but not in a good way), Joe Crede sat out 4 days after he reluctantly admitted his back hurt, and John Danks finally pitched like a rookie.

Ugh. I was just sighting examples of what could go wrong. They weren't suggestions, guys!

At the time of the above quote the Sox had posted an 8-6 record in May despite being outscored 57-44. Pythagoras is slowly but surely creeping the Sox back towards reality, as they've gone just 4-6 since and have now been outscored 127-99 in May. A little bit of 4th grade math and you can see that the Sox pitching staff has averaged 7 runs allowed per game since that post.

We waited. The Sox bats have "broken out" to the tune of 5.5 runs per game over a 10 game stretch. And I don't feel any better about their chances to stay out of AL Central Lobby just above Kansas City's basement. The Twins have done their annual spring molting, shedding their useless veteran presence for younger, cheaper, and just plain better players, and appear poised to at least compete for the remainder of the season. I wish I could say the same for the Sox.

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