Predictions

There are certain baseball writers whom you wonder when they started following baseball. Two weeks ago?

Easy call: Race is a runaway
By Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Columnist | June 26, 2005

PHILADELPHIA -- It's OK to say it. Don't worry about jinxing them. The 2005 Red Sox are going to win the American League East. By a landslide. Come late September, this is going to look like Secretariat at the Belmont in 1973.

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And then we have the unfortunate, spoiled sons of Steinbrenner. The Boss assembled baseball's first $200 million roster but as of this morning, the Yankees are 37-37. There is no sign of life, no alternatives in the farm system, and no one who can be moved. They're just a couple of injuries away from morphing into the Horace Clarke Yankees of 1965-66.

Or just last night?

I couldn't even watch the game last night, it was such an awful spectacle, and went to sleep never expecting to wake up this morning and read that the Yankees are first in the American League East.

Truth is, the Yankees are a very flawed team. Their starting rotation goes from mediocre to terrible, and that's just what they have left after losing three starters, at least two of them maybe for the season. And if we needed any reminding that the Yankees have one of the worst defensive outfields in the Majors, Bernie dropped an easy fly ball last night, with three unearned runs scoring as a result.

They simply can't expect to score 10 or more runs every night.

But regardless, this is a team that is beginning to form a character, that expects it can punch its way through this adversity, even as GM Brian Cashman burns through cell phone batteries trying to find a starting pitcher and a center fielder who can, while he's at it, cover most of right and left fields as well.

So I don't know how this season will play out. Probably many ups and downs and lead changes between the Sox and the Yankees (maybe even the Orioles will stay in the mix). But in the meantime, it is fun to watch the Sox in turmoil as they play as badly as the Yankees did back in April. Here's our boy Dan again.

So there. By the end of the afternoon, after a couple of closed-door meetings, the manager, the player, and the GM were all on the same page. But their unified stance did little to soothe the disgruntled Nation.

How much faith can you have in an organization that sanctions a decision to bat Alex Cora instead of John Olerud with the game on the line against the Yankees?

The Sox have lost nine of their last 13 at Fenway and the manager with the World Series ring on his finger is suddenly sitting on the hot seat.

But Dan, does this in any way affect your "landslide" prediction?

And forget about the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry. That's just fans. When it comes to the players, nothing now beats the nastiness between the Red Sox and the Devil Rays.

Pretty much the only excitement came in the top of the ninth, when an overturned call cost the Devil Rays a run and sparked an animated argument from Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella, who was ejected.

With two outs, Jorge Cantu hit a slow roller to first baseman John Olerud, who flipped to Curt Schilling covering. First base umpire Dana DeMuth initially called Cantu safe, with Carl Crawford apparently scoring from third, but after Schilling and Francona argued long and hard, DeMuth conferred with plate umpire Laz Diaz, and the call reversed, ending the inning.

Tampa second baseman Julio Lugo took a sarcastic jab at Schilling. ''I used to admire Curt Schilling, but I've got more admiration for him now that he would come out and beg for a call and get it," he said. ''I don't think there's anybody in baseball who could do that. I admire Curt Schilling. He's the man for me. I had respect for him, now I have more respect for him than anybody in baseball. I've never seen anything like that."