not so friendly confines... sox lose again

this is really starting to get pathetic. there's all this news about just how much the yankees have sucked this year and yet they are currently only two games behind us!

the last time we strung anything together was early may when we swept detroit and oakland while taking 2 out of 3 from seattle in between. since then we've gone 11-16 and are 2-10 in game ones away from fenway.
the good news is that our schedule seems to soften up a bit with series against the following teams:

cincinnati (.400)
pittsburgh (.492)
cleveland (.492)
philly (.548 but 20-11 at home)

the time to get on a winning streak is now. my prediction for the orioles fading away was based on their pitching not holding up down the stretch and the ownership's history of not making any moves to better the team. now i am starting to hear news on some of the sports shows about how baltimore may me forced to make trades in order to maintain/increase market share with new competition from the (nl east leading) nationals. if they end up getting lucky with the current pitching staff and trade for reinforcements, we are in a world of hurt.

the yankees seem to have all but lost their intimidation factor but are still built to go on a winning streak again at any time. meanwhile toronto hasn't gone away yet either and halladay is back to pitching his ass off.

while theo works on masterminding key trades, tito and papa jack need to do some serious work with manny. i don't know if it's mechanics related (i'm hearing something about his leading leg) or just a good pep talk but for now he is not earning the 20 something million bucks he's making. he was 0-4 heading into the 9th today. he also has only one multi-hit game in the past 11 and 5 rbi in the same period. our league leading team obp means a manny hot streak could inflict some major damage to the oppostion and put the division standings where they should have been all along.