A month of hell to come

Happenings in baseball yesterday:

LaTroy Hawkins blew another ninth inning lead to let the Reds tie the Cubs at 2. The Reds added 2 more in the 12th and won, 4-3. Since their wild card lead peaked at 1 1/2 games, the Cubs have lost 4 of 5 to the Mets and Reds. The Mets and Reds.

The Mets and Reds.

The Astros finished a sweep of the heretofore nigh unbeatable Cardinals, taking the Wild Card lead from the Cubs after trailing them by seven games in late August. R***r C*****s might pitch in the playoffs while Mark Prior stays home.

Unbelievable.

The Red Sox lost, 9-4, to the Devil Rays, Pedro Martinez's fourth straight loss. It was during this game that I realized that I don't like Pedro Martinez. At the same time, I feel honored to have spent the last six years in a city with the most talented pitcher of my generation, if not all-time, and ashamed to have supported the team for which he plays. I loved him for being a bully, if only because most of the aggression was taken out in 17-strikeout 1-hitters against the late '90's Y*****s. After all, he was Pedro. I liked him for being a baby, if only becuase most of his tantrums came after his bullpen blew a lead or he didn't get any run support and I found his case to be legitimate. After all, he was Pedro. But now that Pedro is just another human being making way too much money to throw a ball around, it's a lot harder to tolerate his pouting over being taken out of a game in which he'd pitched four miserable innings. Pedro, I hope you lead the Sox to the World Series this year.

And I hope you pitch somewhere else next year.

As expected, Johan Santana and the Twins shut down the Satans. As unexpected, the game's best pitcher left the game after the fifth inning, leaving the bullpen to squander a 3-1 lead and give the unspeakables their 60th come-from behind win of the season.

The Y*****s beat the Twins again in the nightcap. This team has more holes than any Y***** team since the early 90's. Their starting pitching is horrible. Their bullpen relies on three guys who have pitched about 25,000 innings apiece this season. Jason Giambi almost died this year. Bernie Williams and John Olerud are both over seventy years old. The one peaceful thing in the baseball world over the past few months has been the common knowledge that this team can't win a championship. After last night, I'm starting to think they can.

F*ck.