Downbound Train----Red Sox All Star Selections, And Vote For Hideki Okajima, The DARKMAN!

Another 2-1 loss. This is getting ridiculous! But it's true. The Red Sox lost Sunday yet again to the Texas Rangers and their mediocre starting pitching. And with Gabbard going today, who knows what will happen? The Sox were 13-14 in the month of June. They had the second lowest ERA in the league but batted as a team only .264. Only the White Sox scored fewer runs. (Thank you Htfd. Courant). That's a far cry from the bashing teams of '03, '04 and '05. But pitching is what makes good teams great. Said Kevin Youkilis about the batting woes, also from the Courant........

"We're going to go through ruts," said Kevin Youkilis, who reached base three times but didn't score. "You're going to have your down times. Right now we're not scoring runs, but we're pitching well. If we keep pitching well, we'll win games. It's going to happen. Just be patient. We're not playing that great, hitting-wise, but it's one of those things."

Wise words? I sure hope so. What's important right now is to win all seven of these remaining games before the All Star break. We still have a double digit lead in the AL East, but it should be 4 or 5 games larger than it is. 7pm baseball tonight---game one of seven.

Congratulations go out to Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, David Ortiz, Jonathon Papelbon and Manny Ramirez for their selection to the 2007 All Star team. And there's another guy who is still in the running. He would be none other than the Darkman, Hideki Okajima. Go to the Red Sox dot com page (or just click on the title of this post) and click your way to the "final player" voting and vote for him. Hard-luck loser? Kevin Youkilis. Everyday day, in everyway, he is an All Star in all our hearts. Click on the title of this post to get to the Sox official site and look for the Red VOTE OKAJIMA box on the right top portion of the page. Please.....his ERA is 0.90! He's our guy. Click on the title, and look for VOTE OKAJIMA. You can't miss it!!!! AND YOU CAN VOTE AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT TO!!!!! Please, let's get him in there. Without him, our lead would not be where it is in the AL East. I've already voted ten times this morning. What, I don't have anything better to do? No, I do, but he's our Darkman, and he's been eliminating every late inning threat and he has allowed the game to get to Paps. Isn't that worth your multiple votes, and a couple minutes of your time? It sure is!!!!! So please, for me, and Hideki, and Japan, and RSN, and Red Sox International, as they call it in Japan, vote Okajima. Thanks for being here with me, your quirky but lovable host, as always.