Get Us the Hell Out of Here!!!!

Thankfully, or should I say mercifully, the long painful journey thru the National League parks will come to an end on Sunday.  If there is an American league team that demonstrated their reliance on the DH, it is the Red Sox.  The absence of Big Papi’s bat in this lineup was never more glaring than these past six games in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  The Sox limp into Houston today with a 2-4 record at the National Leagues home parks.

Ortiz has been far and away the best DH in the American league this year,  hitting for average and power.  Texas Rangers DH, Michael Young, is more versatile than David Ortiz and can play any position in the infield.  The Sox were so desperate to get Ortiz’s bat in the lineup that they made a very risky move by putting Adrian Gonzalez in right field for Wednesday’s game in Philly so Ortiz could play first.  The move had no effect as the Sox lost that night 2-1 with the only offense coming off the bat of Sox pitcher, John Lackey.  One can only imagine what could have happened, both or either Ortiz and Gonzalez could have injured themselves that night.  Then what? Imagine either or both of these players on the DL for 15 days or longer.  Think they have have trouble manufacturing runs now?  But hindsight is 50-50 and both players survived and the Sox move on. 

They now play the last place team in the Central Divison and the team with the worst record in all of baseball, the Houston Astros.  Maybe this is where we get our Mojo back.  I am carefully optimistic with this three game set.

Now lets get this sweep over and done with and lets come home, where Ortiz and  Carl Crawford should be back in the lineup.  The games were much more fun when we were scoring double digit runs every night.  This only shows how important it is for the American League to win the All-Star game this year.  If the Sox are in the World Series, they will need that home field advantage more than ever.

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