Loss is a Missed Shot at an Execution

If the Red Sox won Sunday afternoon's all hosiery face off, we all might have been watching an execution.

Sure, the White Sox are still on pace to make the playoffs, but they'd been thoroughly dominated across the two previous days, once with Mark Buerhle on the mound and with a first-time starter taking the hill for Boston. A three-game sweep would have amounted to a three-game wild card edge for the Sox over whichever AL Central contender slips in the division race, and that alone would be a huge buffer, allowing Boston to focus on running down Tampa Bay instead of trying to hold off contenders on two separate fronts.

Instead, with the pitcher who -- while impressive nonetheless -- has been most vulnerable in the past month, Boston couldn't eke out a late comeback win. After digging a true hole for the first time in the series in so far as two runs is a hole, the Sox finally rallied in the eighth and ninth but couldn't muster a win.

Just like that, a three-game cushion became a one-game edge. Cushion > edge in just about any consideration, so the setback is unfortunate at best and significantly troublesome at worst. Either way, it's definitely a momentum-staller, with a sudden need for a Monday night win if the Red Sox are to gain forward progress across an elongated weekend. Baltimore comes to town off a woeful sweep in the Tampa Bay Thunderdome, which could make them either A) angry, B) frustrated, C) dispirited or D) desperate for a win. Any of the first three adjectives would seem to help Paul Byrd on the mound tomorrow -- the Orioles have yet to see him in a Boston uniform -- while the fourth could be quite the wet blanket. Home sets against Baltimore are made for sweeping, as the Rays just showed, and the next three days will be significant for reasons both symbolic and standings-related. That's un-debatable.

Unfortunately, had Boston won on Sunday, the wild card demise of the White Sox would have been un-debatable as well. That didn't quite happen, so now it's a matter of whether momentum can be won or lost. At this time of year, that's always a significant distinction, and with Tampa Bay winning that's more true now than ever.

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