Sports Redux: What Gives?

We here at the Redux are starting to get awfully cranky.

You see, we are running out of ways to tell folks to keep the faith and stay off the Zakim Bridge. We've invested a lot of time in the act of reassuring Red Sox fans, asking them to refrain from hitting the panic button.

You'd think the Red Sox would help us out and do their part to keep people calm. That would be the decent thing to do, right? Just win a couple of games.

But noooooo, not our Red Sox. They're all about making things interesting and inviting the Yankees back into the division race. And it's starting to get ridiculous.

The Red Sox waited until the eighth inning to bring their bats to Camden Yards on Friday night, understandable given the fact that they were up against Orioles ace Erik Bedard. But they finally started to get the job done and jumped to a 5-1 lead when Terry Francona turned to new acquisition Eric Gagne.

That's when it went sour. The Herald sums it up with a perfect headline today: "Gagne With a Spoon."

Four runs charged to Gagne, the game-winner charged to Hideki Okajima and countless Red Sox fans turning away in disgust from a game that should have been remembered as a pitchers' duel, not a bullpen implosion.

"I'm not doing my job right now," said Gagne after the game, earning the Tim Wakefield Award for Obvious Statements. Sox fans agree.

So now what? The Yankees beat the Indians on Friday, so the lead's at five. The Red Sox should beat Baltimore today, when 14-5 Josh Beckett goes up against 1-0 Garrett Olson and if they can stick their heels into the ground and hold this lead at five games, things will be OK.

If not?

We've tried to resist the temptation long enough, but it might be time to figure out where the panic button is.

-- Slightly better news on the Patriots side. Sure, they lost their first exhibition game on Friday, but so did the Colts! And besides, it's not as if the Patriots were really trying to beat Tampa Bay, who edged out the Pats 13-10. The star players made cameos at best and players unlikely to make the cut in a month's time were getting a chance to prove their worth. It was a glorified practice session featuring a skeleton crew. A total of 15 players weren't even able to approach the field, as 10 didn't suit up and 5 remain on the Player Unable To Perform list, which we really think ought to be named instead the Players Unable to Sustain the Stress of the Year list.

But hey, that's just us.

Caricature of a pre-Boston Eric Gagne snapped by flickr user Joits.