Sports Redux: Our Bummer Of A Weekend, Continued

Should we be concerned? If the question relates to the Red Sox' starting pitching, it's hard to see why not. Jon Lester got the ball at Fenway yesterday afternoon, promptly fell into a 2-0 hole on an Evan Longoria homer, then got pulled in the middle of a dreadful fifth inning, as the Rays started banging hits into every corner of Fenway. When the dust settled, it was a 14-5 Tampa Bay blowout.

So let's look at why we're concerned about our pitching. Lester's at 6.31 ERA. Beckett, 6.75. Daisuke (remember him?) put up a 12.79 before leaving for the DL. Penny and Masterson are both north of 5 as well. Thank goodness for Wakefield, huh? In Lester's defense (and we admit, it ain't much of a defense), he was victimized by some shaky fielding (welcome back, Lugo) and a thwarted rally in the bottom of the 5th that could have turned TB's 8-3-at-the-time lead into something worth playing the last four innings for. Well, that didn't happen.

And it gets more fun tonight, as the Sox face Matt Garza, who took a perfect game into the seventh against them a couple of weeks ago. Josh Beckett and his aforementioned hefty 6.75 ERA are all that's standing between the Sox and yet another series loss. When do we play NY again?

And that's just one game that will send locals to the antacid section of their local grocers tonight. The Bruins have a literal must-win game against Carolina, while the Celtics have an effective must-win game in Orlando. It could be a long evening.

On a lighter note, the Globe looks at former Sox player Troy O'Leary, who's working on a baseball reality-TV show, which will give overlooked kids a chance to dazzle scouts. Maybe one of them can pitch.