Is This Season Lost?

August 8, 2009 -- The Red Sox have just lost to the Yankees for the third consecutive time thus falling 5.5 games out of first place. Depending on the outcome of late games tonight the team could be tied for the wild card lead.

There are 53 games (just under 1/3 of the season) remaining in the regular season. But realistically, is this the end? The team has not performed well since the all star break winning only eight games out of twenty-one. While other playoff contenders have played well enough to catch and in the case of the Yankees pass the Sox.

Offensively, the team has been in a funk for roughly two months (minus the recent series in Baltimore). Plenty of blame to go around. Ortiz, Bay, Drew, Pedroia, Green/Lowrie all have performed well below expectations during the skid. On the mound, other than Lester and Beckett the starters simply have not been good enough. Smoltz, Penny, Buchholz have not allowed the team to get on a hot streak. More significantly, these three starters have taxed the bull pen to the point of exhaustion.

A solid start masked many of the team's deficiencies. Obviously, the injuries to Bay, Lowell and Wakefield could not be predicted. But doesn't every team go through these types of things? Dice-K's ineffectiveness is seriously testing the depth of the staff. An off season of spending at TJ Maxx (Baldelli, Smoltz, Penny, Saito) was once applauded as low risk -- high reward. Now the Yankees spending spree at Ralph Lauren (Teixeira, Sabathia, Burnett) makes the Sox moves look frivolous and idiotic.

Is it too early to count out the 2009 Red Sox? Is it always darkest before the dawn? Will Wakefield's return propel the team into the playoffs? Will the offense finally start to click?

Or is this the beginning of the end? The team's lack of firepower will continue to be its downfall? Is the starting pitching too inferior? Has the age of veterans Varitek, Lowell, Ortiz and Wakefield finally caught up with the team?