I predicted this

But I didn't predict it to happen so quickly. With a 1/2 game lead on the Yankees, the Sox have watched their lead dwindle in the past week. I thought with 4 games up after the last Yankees series, the Sox would lose that lead slowly, until the final series with the Yanks would come along and decide the division and the playoff berths. But this is just depressing.

Wells pitched a lousy game, and as he put it: "I'm not going to make any excuses," Wells said. "I just went out and stunk it up tonight." Wells gave up four runs and 10 hits in 2 2/3 innings. He threw 76 pitches, 37 in the third inning. But that's not the whole story. It's inexcusable for a pitcher not to cover the bag. Why didn't he do it?

Meanwhile, in NY, Bubba, yes, Bubba Crosby hits a walk off home run. "I've never hit a walk-off homer ever, anywhere, even in Little League, in my life," Crosby said. "And to hit one here at Yankee Stadium, this time of year, when it counts, it doesn't get any better than that. I pretty much felt it when I hit it. I can't hit it much harder than that."

And in Cleveland, things are looking up. There's a lot of talk about how the Chicago should be worried. Why worry? However things turn out between the two, the Indians and White Sox are going to take the division and the wild card.

Well, it comes down to this. Schilling no longer has time to work things out. He can't go out there and do so-so. There's no more time to play around. He needs to be the stopper here and now. This is what being the ace is all about.

Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7:15pm ET

38 Curt Schilling - RHP LAST GAME W L IP ER BB SO 0 1 6.2 4 3 3

37 Seth McClung - RHP LAST GAME W L IP ER BB SO 0 1 5.1 7 4 4

SEASON STATS W-L ERA G CG SHO IP 6-8 6.20 29 0 0 74.0 H R ER HR BB SO 97 51 51 10 19 69 VS. Tampa Bay W-L ERA G IP H ER BB SO 2005 1-2 6.16 7 19.0 24 13 3 15 Career 6-4 4.16 9 71.1 75 33 12 57 CAREER STATS W-L ERA G CG SHO IP 190-131 3.40 511 82 19 2886.2 H R ER HR BB SO 2589 1152 1090 296 657 2814

SEASON STATS W-L ERA G CG SHO IP 6-10 6.61 32 0 0 99.1 H R ER HR BB SO 95 78 73 16 61 86 VS. Boston W-L ERA G IP H ER BB SO 2005 0-2 6.48 4 8.1 6 6 7 9 Career 1-2 5.40 2 13.1 9 8 11 13 CAREER STATS W-L ERA G CG SHO IP 10-11 6.26 44 0 0 138.0 H R ER HR BB SO 128 101 96 22 86 111

BTW, if anyone wants to discuss how the Patriots did this past weekend, go read this article by Felger at the Herald first.