Ignore previous entry. The time has come to panic.

Now I know that I vowed not to panic until the end of June. My logic was sound. My intentions were good. But all that has evaporated with the events of the past week.

First, the Rays swept the Sox at Fenway. At Fenway. In a four-game series. This is normally where we can play. Other parks are generally where we cannot play so well. Plus the weather was cold and the Rays were wearing stupid flappy hats to deal with the cold, including manager Joe Madden. They should get classy tuques, like the Patriots -- although admittedly, they would probably need them maybe once or twice per year.

Now, there was a glimmer of hope in Game 1 against the Rays. Beckett pitched well. It was 1-1 through 8.5, then the game was postponed due to rain. The next day, the game resumed and we went on to lose 3-1. The pitcher to blame was (not surprisingly) Delcarmen, so I guess he hasn't got 'it' back. Sometimes I wonder if he ever had it to begin with. Remember last season when he didn't suck? Did I dream that?

Then everything went pear-shaped. I don't want to think about how badly we lost. But like a good Red Sox fan, I thrive in the face of grimness. So the scores were: 6-5 (we got all of those runs late), 7-1, and 8-2. Yes, really. We were 0-30 with men in scoring position, or something like that (by which I mean we may have been 0-25. It was awful). In fact, we had last scored a man in scoring position on April 15 against the Twins, meaning that we almost went for a week without scoring a man in scoring position.

Now we are playing against the Rangers. They are not very good. In fact, their record is really not that much better than ours (they are 5-7, we are 4-9). But that's not even the bad part. We are in the 5th inning and:

• The Rangers are up 6-2.
• We have allowed 9 stolen bases. That's a record for the Rangers. That ties a record for us going back to 1913.
• Wakefield is a mess --> wasn't he good at some point last year too?
  

So yeah, you know what? It's okay to panic. Go right ahead. Remember last year when I proclaimed that the Red Sox were a freaking disgrace? We have moved into a whole different league of disgrace here. I've even gone so far as to bring out the 'Red Sox annual collapse' tag and it is only April.