Imitation
| Game 124: August 17, 2008 | |||
 Blue Jays |
15 | W: Shaun Marcum (8-5) | 64-60, 2 game winning streak |
| Red Sox | 4 | L: Josh Beckett (11-9) | 71-53, 2 game losing streak |
| Highlights: Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia launched solo homers in the fourth and seventh innings respectively, but the Red Sox were far from working out of a six-run deficit from the first. Jed Lowrie chipped in with three hits, one run, an RBI, a walk, and fell a home run short of hitting for the cycle. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays piled on early, chased Beckett out of the game in the third, and continued to pad their stats against all of the home team’s relievers except Jonathan Papelbon. | |||
Too much of the Texas pitching staff’s tendencies and not enough of the their hitters’ habits rubbed off on the Red Sox. Boston was swept in the rain-shortened two-game series over the weekend, which does not portend well for their upcoming road trip. At least the stopper, Jon Lester, will take the mound in Fenway South tonight.
In times of turmoil, it is at least amusing to turn the attention a few states south and heed Hank Steinbrenner’s latest pronouncement on the state of his team. “We’ve been devastated by injuries. No team I’ve ever seen in baseball has been decimated like this,” he proclaimed. “It would kill any team.”
What a pale imitation of the elder Steinbrenner his progeny is. Hank blusters and blasts his way through the press corps, but all of that puffery is a disguise to hide what he truly is: a mollycoddled milquetoast that shrinks at the slightest sign of adversity.
