stretchstretch

Manny is thinking, "hmm, traded from the 'LA' Staying Home in October's, to the Chicago Staying Home in October's"

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 1, 2010 -> 12:37 PM) 3 f***ing errors today. We aren't going to win with or without Manny when we make that many errors per game. I would safely say we can stamp today as the day the season ended, a MN win and 5 back ought to be the nail in the proverbial coffin

and this is where Ozzie shows how bad he is, a game still within reach, electing to put it out of reach for the sake of what?? seeing if you can "teach" a bad pitcher to get good in game situations and your team on the cusp of going down 5 games with less than a month left??? wtf

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 1, 2010 -> 12:32 PM) I'll gladly take the DP there. If you can't score 3 runs off of Carrasco and company, you don't deserve to win the game. we can't and we don't

we should honestly just intentionally walk Choo and intentionally balk him to second, to save the outfielders energy on his inevitable double to right

wow, bunting with a guy on second and no outs to extend a 1 run lead against an offensively challenged team, what a great idea!! we should really take notes from teams like CLE

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Sep 1, 2010 -> 12:25 PM) We're a couple runs away from a sweep. I wouldn't get too excited just yet. sure about that?

it's pathetic that we're praying to squeeze out 1 run wins against a team, if we really were playoff caliber, we should be DESTROYING yet ANOTHER pitcher with only this game as his complete MLB statline, holding us to one run halfway through the game is a fcking joke. there's nothing unreasonable to expect a 4 run inning followed by a 3 run inning and a 7-2 win, nothing at all. how the hell is this group going to make up 4 games in 30 days if they can't beat the bottom teams in each division?

four point five games........thirty three games to go.....see you tomorrow

I'm about out of analogies, superlatives, sarcasm, etc on this team and season, just too exhausting riding their roller coaster. When it's not your year, one needs to know when to cut their losses, so that's what I have to do now. May and June were pretty nice once I tuned out of the Sox and had literally lost count of how many games back they were. I could put my energy in some productive matters, and not spend nights in anxiety or days replaying what went wrong, just moved on. Is it possible they can rebound, well yes, anything is possible, but it's certainly not worth the price of admission at this point. Tonight's game for me spoke more volumes than any past this season. It affirmed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are unable to win past the halfway mark in a game, so if by some absolute miracle half of MN goes on the DL and we slither into the playoffs, it would be a waste of a spot since we'd be massacred by the AL East opponent. It would be better, and it pains me to say this, have 3 teams from the AL East in the playoffs, at least fans would get to see teams fight to win games, and not have their manager pitch to an unconscious hitter who single handedly brought his team back, when first base is wide open with men on second and third. I still hope they make it but can't spend the remainder of this month and September agonizing in vain

have a nice summer guys. congrats to MN, once again they proved they are simply a better baseball organization. hope they can find a way to beat NY and represent the ALC

88mph down the middle is not going to end this inning!!

QUOTE (LVSoxFan @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 11:34 AM) a) I am SO tired of hearing that all our problems basically come down to: we didn't bring back Thome. Geesh. That's it, huh? The key between good season/lost season? Was our DH? Thome? B) It's probably too late, but I think it's time Ozzie--or Kenny--gave a "Herb Brooks" speech to the team, like the one he gave them before 1980 game against the Russians. Everybody has this insanely overrated idea of the Twins, just as everyone feared the Soviets back then. He mocked them in front of his team, relentlessly. He said they could be beat, and they could do it. I am done with, as somebody else here so perfectly put it, the games following a "script" when it comes to the Twins. I thought it was allegedly the Metrodome that was supposed to be the culprit! Apparently not. I think it's mental, just like it used to be with Oakland. On the other hand, we haven't been winning when we should have all season (against division rivals, against sh*t teams like Baltimore), so maybe we just aren't that good. absolutely, Ghee-yens "piranha" comment was one of the biggest morale busting blunders I've seen a manager make in years. The Twins latched right onto it as their identity, and his players saw that their skipper felt his squad could not stop from being eaten by them, bite by bite--fckn pathetic

"Minnesota has the biggest lead they've had all season in the division after we were tied with them one week ago." over the years I've grown accustomed to this very thing, not a slow turnover, but a substantial division lead doing a 180 in one very painful week

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 01:23 PM) God we are starting to sound like Bears fans. There's always something clearly better out there. No manager will ever be good enough. They should just run the team based on fan voting before every game, I think we'd be set then. No man will ever be good enough for my Soxies!!!

QUOTE (elgonzo4sox @ Aug 19, 2010 -> 11:18 PM) That is how far back the Sox are behind the Twins: two bad pitches, or two missing clutch hits, or two Twins seeing-eye singles that just eluded a Sox fielder's glove. I hear you man, it literally is just that close. But you have to wonder why those season determining single pitches, or seeing eye singles ALWAYS seem to go their way. It's not like year after year they kick us out of the race over a few days by blowouts, it's those agonizing "if one thing happened" scenarios. I think those one thing in a team's favor comes from confidence, and WRT to the Sox they have that edge just knowing. Same way you see Boston fans on their feet when their team is down 7 in the 9th, the team and fans simply know a charge is going to be made. I cannot recall the last time I EVER saw a Boston home game where they went down quietly on a few ground balls and a strikeout. No matter the situation, they find a way to threaten..... MN I swear between them and Boston there cannot be any other teams in baseball even close to scoring more runs at home after the 6th inning, it's uncanny....

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Aug 20, 2010 -> 12:11 PM) the Sox were destined to cool off. IMO, the twins are now destined to cool off. I predict a big surprise when they visit Seattle in a week or so. except the Sox didn't cool off, they went cold. The amount of 1 run losses lately has been devastating, the 4run blow in MN in the 9th was devastating, the losses to BAL were devastating, Thome's walkoff was devastating. We're 4.5 out at the time this goes to press, but it should be 0.5 game if we held a lead in the last inning twice against MN, or up a game adding one more win in BAL we might heat up a bit, but with the team we're playing, a LOT of luck will need to be involved for them to start losing a bunch of games. They're simply unconscious since the ASB and cooling down a bit isn't going to get it done, they'll need to go cold like we did.

when we were 9.5 out and I had all but tuned out of the season, my eternally optimistic buddy was painting scenarios where we could get back in, I laughed at him, as always, but had later to come back and tell him "someday I'll learn from you". Now that we're here he's his usual glass half full self, so I think I need to go back to full quit on the team fanship, so the Sox can climb back in. In 2004 when they traded away Mags and El Caballo, I renounced my 34yrs of being a fan, stating if the organization was going to show they didn't care about the fan, I could no longer care about them, well we all know how that epic breaking of ties ended....with me spending 8Gs on tickets for WS games 1 and 2

great stuff, need to make this a staple ritual after every epic meltdownanation

it's about that time of year where I dump all my sox bookmarks, and cell phone links, and stop punishing myself. unfortunately the same routine has been happening 5 seasons straight now.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 17, 2010 -> 10:48 PM) I really hope the Twins do well in the posteason so I don't have to read a lot of these comments on here about how Twins shouldn't be taken seriously cause they suck in postseason. I don't really care how they do in the postseason, because if they make the postseason, then they beat us in the standings and that's all that matters to me. well, I'm with you, and after I got over my bitterness last season I was pulling hard for them too, but........they do what they do when it's not us...

the shame of it is, in the playoffs NY will put Cano about 50 ft into right field and Thome will ground out to him about 5 times and go hitless in three games

kotsay's AB is a season defining moment...........exactly the kind of moment MN finds a way to get a stick the bat out blooper to bring in two runs they can have this fkn division, this team simply does not deserve it

glad to see we got this thread back to addressing the OP, some good theories and stats have come out of it. personally, I find the fact that many other top teams have mediocre second halves revealing as it puts us in the company of the "elite" squads in comparing 1st half to 2nd. now, couple that with an observation that MN is unique in seemingly being able to fill injured spots with "no-namers" out of the minor system at almost any position, and they come in immediately contributing, would really answer the 2nd half trend Morneau goes down, no problem, Nathan lost for the year before the season begins (Sox fans jump with glee), no problem....no need to go out to the FA market, or squeeze something in at the trade deadline, just pull up a guy that no one has ever heard of and he comes in with rock solid defense, speed, smart baserunning, above avg offensive numbers, and so on.......how many times can someone recall a MN guy make his big club debut who sits at or above the Mendoza line for weeks? or a pitcher than with ERA north of 5 over a period of three weeks, consecutive blown saves, etc

too many people are straying from the original question and replying about this year--DH, Thome, Peavy, bullpen, etc. The question is about the Sox tendency to have a weak 2nd half, and the Twins completely predictable 2nd half rise. I would like to hear more from the knowledgeable, fact-holders more about why every late summer in memory feels like a replay of the one before. I think there are two posts in here with data on Sox second halves, not one countering with MN numbers. And no one is asking if the Yankees have MN's number. Does a single person here, in their heart, really feel the Sox are capable to passing and keeping MN down for the remaining stretch? Doesn't almost everyone hear feel like we've been here over and over and over again? When we were 3+ games up, and had numerous opportunities to get it to 6, each miss felt like blowing a 10 ten game lead because I KNEW the twins were going to do the annual mult-game leapfrog in a week's time....and here we are....and I would bet a week's pay we'll finish 8-9 games back, without hesitation