Winless in Seattle: Red Sox Skid Hits Seven

The Boston Red Sox dropped their seventh straight decision, this time at the hands of the Seattle Mariners by a 4-1 score on Monday afternoon.  The loss keeps the Sox winless on their current nine-game road trip to the west coast and now sit twelve games below .500 on the season.  They’ve been outscored 58-16 over the past seven games. The misery continues.

Entering the season the Red Sox were said to be miles ahead of the Mariners, at least on paper.  But now after what has been one of the worst seasons in recent Red Sox memory, they find themselves looking up at the M’s, a full four games behind them in the Wild Card standings; not that either team will be playing this October.  This is just another painful reminder of how far this team has fallen.  Currently both the Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals are only one game behind Boston in the standings meaning that potentially there could be only two other clubs worse than Boston.

It’s clear that this group of players has given up playing for manager Bobby Valentine, who should be relieved of his duties before the end of the season.  There is still respect to be had by playing out the remainder of the season strong and possibly playing the role of spoiler as other AL East division clubs attempt to solidify their spot in the October dance.  But Valentine’s fate is another story for another day.

Clay Buchholz took the mound for Boston and pitched decent enough, going 7.0 innings while surrendering 4 runs (3 earned) on 6 hits while fanning 8.  His counterpart, Jason Vargas was just a little bit better, silencing the Sox bats for most of the game.  His line was similar to that of Buchholz, also going 7.0 innings and giving up 6 hits, but Vargas only allowed the one run.  For the Sox offense, it was Dustin Pedroia who led the charge with two hits, extending his hitting streak to 14-games and remaining one of the more consistent players through this tumultuous stretch.  Pedey collected his 1,000th hit in his major league career in the first inning when he hit a ground rule double, later scoring on a Cody Ross single for the lone Sox run.  It was another one of those days for the Red Sox.

I wonder if Bobby is sleeping at night?