YankeesRedSox.com

Well the Red Sox have managed to lose more games in August than they did in all of July. The offense in August (thru 8/16) is offering a .745 OPS compared to the season %/ratio of .805. In the last week (again thru 8/16) the OPS is .687, or, stated differently, the same as Carl Crawford's OPS in 2011 (actually slightly better than Crawford's).

Loyal reader, blmeanie, got me started on the Red Sox offensive woes with his blog entry today. The Red Sox have been terrible and puncuated that point with a shutout loss today, collecting all of 3 hits.

The negatives have been injuries to Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz and apparently Adrian Gonzalez, who Terry Francono suggested on WEEI.com,is battling a neck injury (I am too, it's just that mine's fat). Oh and the big whopper of a problem with the Red Sox line-up is Carl Crawford. He has been terrible in 2011. What's that? Give him some time? O.K., you tell me how much time is enough.

Crawford went 0-9 with 5 k's against the Rays this week. Michael Felger of 98.5 the Sportshub pointed out that his 0-9 included nary a walk. That's lousy baseball Carl. Quick, who has the lowest OPS of Red Sox starters? Yup, Carl Crawford does, yet he makes the most of any Red Sox everyday players save...J.D. Drew. Wow. The 2 highest Red Sox everyday players are Crawford and Drew, whose OPS is somehow less than Crawfords at .622.

So Theo Epstein has to be A.) frustrated with Drew (what's that Epstein, "I thought you guys were going to ask about J.D. Drew having the 2nd highest OPS of all AL outfielders - quote on 98.5 in 2009) and B.) VERY WORRIED about Crawford. My hope is that Crawford is experiencing first year Boston/New York jitters. Otherwise the Red Sox are screwed. A Night in the Ruts indeed (the first Aerosmith album I recall, courtesy of my cousin Doug, a darned good singer/guitarist himself, rock on Dougie).

The good news is that the Red Sox have a good offense despite Drew and Crawford. J.D. Reddick has been a godsend and the rest of the crew chew up and spit out pitchers. But, when injuries set and, and they always do, the Red Sox need to be able to fall back on their highest paid players, right?

So far Crawford has been given a free-pass, but if the Red Sox don't go deep in the playoffs and Crawford keeps playing this poorly, we might be be in for an enourmously long and painful 6 more years with Crawford.