We can second-guess or backseat coach all we want. Should Beckett have started Tuesday night's game instead of Tim Wakefield? Should Jacoby Ellsbury have started in the outfield for J.D. Drew or Coco Crisp? Should Doug Mirabelli have been replaced by Jason Varitek the moment Wakefield left the game? Should Julian Tavarez be on the pitching roster in these ALCS games?

But that will only madden Red Sox fans and distract them from the reality at hand: the Red Sox are one game away from elimination. Boston, it seems, can't figure out how to do any of the following:

1) Get a starting pitcher through the fifth inning
2) Score runs that aren't home runs
3) Beat the Indians without Josh Beckett

And that's pretty much where it stands, particularly after a heartbreaking (to us) loss at Jacobs Field on Tuesday. The Tribe beat the Sox with a 7-3 score after a pitching duel between Cleveland's Paul Byrd and our Wake ended when the Indians blew things wide open with a seven-run fifth inning.

Ugly? Very. It started with Casey Blake's leadoff solo homer, then moved on juggled foul ball mishaps (Youk), double-play balls knocked off target (Wakefield), more homer action (a three-run blast by Jhonny Peralta off Manny Delcarmen) and the kind of hitting we've been looking for from the Sox all series long.

The one neat thing that came of the game was that the Sox became the second team in MLB history to hit back-to-back-to-back homers during a rally attempt (Youkilis, Ortiz, Ramirez). It was the first such feat in ALCS history - but personally, that won't mean much to us unless the team rallies behind Beckett to make this actually look like a competitive series on Thursday night.

Image from Amazon.