All others must bring data

Depression
It's always tough when your 1 and 2 pitchers lose two in a row. It's worse after losing five of six to TB and KC. It's too easy to fall back into the doom and gloom after a road series the Red Sox had.

I'm not sure the Red Sox are going to recover from losing Varitek. Their pitching staff seems to be in disarray. Beckett wasn't exactly the picture of consistency before Varitek got hurt, but it seems like all the quotes on Javy lately look a lot like the quotes about catching Wakefield at the beginning of the season. I hope it gets straightened out, but we'll have to wait and see.

The loss last night could have gone either way (hello, Wily Mo Errorless). It's the carryover that hurts.

Hope
If we take a look at what the Tigers have done, it should be be easy to see how the Red Sox could turn this skid around. After getting swept by the White Sox, the Tigers weren't intimidated to come to Boston. In fact, it looks more like they decided to sweep up the Red Sox to somehow make up for what happened to them (and given Wells pitching tonight, that becomes a distinct possibility).

And so, that's what I'm going to hope for. Somehow, the Sox take this beating and turn it around on their next opponents.

Did I mention the Yankees are coming to town?