The dream is over, at least for another season - the Red Sox officially eliminated themselves from playoff contention tonight, by losing to the Chicago White Sox, 7-2. A pity, because a win would have kept them in the running, as the Anaheim Angels, their rivals for the fourth and and final playoff spot, also lost. But this year has been nothing but one godawful shame for the Sox, who started out with a truly incredible 40-17 spring record only to go into a early summer tailspin from which they never really recovered. Of course the truly bizarre thing is that two of the Sox's pitchers - ace Pedro Martinez and the unlikely hero Derek Lowe - have both won twenty or more games (a remarkable thing for a modern pitcher, period) this season, and the team's big slugger Manny Ramirez is still in contention for the league's batting title. The Red Sox played some brilliant ball this year, no doubt, but unfortunately they only did so half the time, if that. For all the epic hurling from D-Lowe and Pedro, and all the long balls from Ramirez and the rest of the club's hitters, there were periods of agonizing mediocrity that swallowed up such feats and rendered them null and void. What a waste!

Nevertheless, the wife and I will be going to Fenway Park for one last game this Saturday, against the consistently-awful Tampa Bay Devil Rays. At least we're almost guaranteed a win...