Sports Redux: The Lost Weekend

Bostonist has obtained a picture of the 2009 Red Sox just before they embarked on their make-or-break week playing their top AL East rivals. If it looks like Sonny Corleone seconds before he was perforated by Barzini's men, it's not a coincidence.

Six games against the Rays and Yankees. Six losses. Thirty-one innings between runs, before Victor Martinez finally discovered that if someone can make it all the way around 360' of a dirt track, his team gets a point. True, then Daniel Bard gave up back-to-back home runs (Damon/Teixiera) to give the Yankees the lead and point them towards the 5-2 win and the sweep, but there's a moral victory of a sort in scoring two runs in 33 innings. But if you're reading Bostonist on your iPhone while clinging from the side of the Tobin Bridge this morning (Randy Booth of Over the Monster says please don't, but the way), we understand. Can we have your iPhone?

The Sox, now tied with the Rangers for the wild-card spot and seeming on the Express Elevator to oblivion, somehow have to regroup and keep their act together until they play the Orioles again. The mood in the clubhouse was as grim as you'd expect when the whole team just took a week to do what Steven Tyler did in seconds. David Ortiz: "It can’t get no worse, right?" "You look at this offense on paper and we’re supposed to put up runs," said Jon Lester, who has a right to be bummed that he got a no-decision last night after seven innings of pretty good ball. "We’ll go home . . . and try to find a way to score," said Dustin Pedroia. Let's hope so, since the ALC-leading Tigers start a series at Fenway tonight.

And since we gleefully checked the New York papers when the Red Sox thumped the Yankees eight straight times back in 2005 (Wait, it was this season? Really?), we'll bite the bullet and check again. Apparently, Alex Rodriguez has learned that if you hit a game-winning home run in the 15th inning of a scoreless marathon, your fans will cheer for you. That could mean bad news down the road. Other NY writers are trying to make themselves believe that the atmosphere in the new joint can be as loud as the old stadium.

In other local sports news, the Celtics may be ready to show Glen Davis that you can go home again; with low interest from the rest of the league, Baby seems ready to come back on a two-year deal. And Derrick Burgess is pleased as punch to be on the Patriots, away from the Raiders, and ready to contend for once.