In what's been a Cinderella summer for the Red Sox, the clock on the wall suddenly appears to read four minutes after midnight. No, the season is not over, but the magic carpet ride that transported this team through a wormhole and into the thick of the playoff race is almost certainly fading into the fabric of history. Now they have to do something with the opportunity and make July matter.
Instead of everything breaking Boston's way and almost everybody being hot at the same time, we're suddenly seeing a brand of baseball where every mistake is magnified, every clutch play ripples, and every little thing makes a huge difference. In other words, welcome to meaningful baseball in August!
Nowhere is the reality check more evident than in the way the last four games have ended. They're not just losses, they're losses to subpar pitching performances all ending with with men on base in the ninth inning and the tying run either at the plate or stranded somewhere aboard the broken carousel.
Tonight in particular was filled with lowlights. Here's some of the most glaring:
The team was 0-7 with runners in scoring position (part of a 3-36 stretch with 38 men left on base over their last four games).

#last