Wild Time

If a team clinches something, and it really isn’t a “championship” of anything (no matter what the hats say), and it happens because of something another team does, and there’s a celebration, but it happens three hours after the game and no reporters are allowed to watch, did something really get clinched?

That’s the question this morning after the Angels beat the Rangers to put the Red Sox into postseason play for the sixth time in the last seven years. Of course it is all a moot point if the Sox can’t get their pitching straightened out, and fast.

Something has gone wrong each of the last four days, so the next week, when the starters make one final appearance before the playoffs begin next Wednesday or Thursday, will be crucial in determining Boston’s playoff pitching rotation.

First it was Jon Lester getting hit hard by the Yankees, literally. Then it was Josh Beckett being pulled from a start because of back spasms. He had three cortisone shots, and will get a final regular-season start next Saturday. Finally, Clay Buchholz got hammered by the Blue Jays to complete the trifecta. There are your top three starters for the playoffs.

And, as for number four, Tim Wakefield starts tonight to test his body again, as though all the back and leg problems that have kept him on the DL for most of the second half of the season will just go away and he’ll be fine to pitch through October. If he can’t continue, we’re left with Paul Byrd.

This presents pitching coach John (let me jot that down) Farrell with the biggest dilemma/challenge of his time with the Sox. Usually, teams give their pitchers a final tune-up start before the playoffs begin. Farrell has to find out if his three top pitchers can actually pitch. With Byrd as the fourth starter, there really are no other options at this point. Ironic isn’t it? The team that supposedly had too much pitching in May is now struggling to find enough pitchers to round out the rotation when it really counts.

And the Sox bullpen is not settled either. The supposed “best bullpen in baseball’ has been getting lit up lately on a regular basis. Hideki Okajima was sent back to Boston during the road trip with arm issues. Manny Delcarmen is now officially useless while Daniel Bard and Billy Wagner are taking turns being ineffective. For the last couple of weeks, the best pitchers leading up to Papelbon have been “Oh No” Ramon Ramirez and Takashi Saito.

At least after Monday night we know that one option will not be Michael Bowden, Hunter Jones and Dustin Richardson.

By the way, the Sox have now been the Wild Card playoff entry six times. Hooray! We set a record for finishing second!