Ron Borges

Normally it’s the dog days of August that tend to break flawed baseball teams. For the Boston Red Sox, that’s been so much a part of their history that The Hated Yankees (the club’s full name in New England and throughout Red Sox Nation), or at least their fans, have grown to talk of it mockingly when the Sox are leading the American League East in April,  May, June or July, as they were doing this summer until everything fell apart a day earlier than usual.

July 31 may become one of those days that lives in the minds of Puritanical Sox fans for quite some time if the Yankees find a way to beat the Olde Towne Team out of the AL East pennant. That was the day nothing happened and everything went wrong, all at the same time.

That’s the day baseball’s boy genius, Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, refused to part with any of his beloved prospects to try and secure frontline pitching help or someone like Phillies’ All-Star outfielder Bobby Abreu, who of course ended up swinging a bat for the Yankees the next day. By the time the night was out, oft-injured Sox outfielder Trot Nixon was placed on the disabled list with a strained right bicep and catcher Jason Varitek limped off the field with what would prove to be a knee injury that would require surgery and perhaps as long as eight weeks on the shelf. Abreu’s bat started looking a lot better to Theo by then but it was too late. He had gone with the kids, as they like to say in Boston, and the kids may not be ready for what is about to come.

For a brief moment Epstein thought he had trumped the Yankees by swinging a deal for Astros’ pitcher Roy Oswalt, which would have been far better than anything George Steinbrenner’s money came up with. Epstein allegedly agreed to give up several of the young arms he covets and at least one starting position player because the addition of Oswalt would have created a three-man starting rotation of Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett and Oswalt and a sense that it’s “Bye Bye Yankees” this time, not “No, No, Nanette.”

(For those outside Red Sox Nation, “No, No, Nanette” was a 1925 musical financed by former BoSox owner Harry Frazee. Lore has it that Frazee financed the piece by unloading Babe Ruth, and is commonly blamed for the Curse of the Bambino.)

But the Oswalt deal fell through and within 48 hours the Yankees had passed the Red Sox in the standings (although admittedly by the slimmest of percentage points) and rekindled the fears that for the ninth straight season the Sox may finish second to New York in the division standings.

What makes that more significant than usual is the play of the Tigers, Twins and White Sox, who between them seem sure to produce the wildcard team this year.

That means if the Sox are again to reach the post season —as they’ve made a habit of over the past few years — they very well may need to win the division with a depleted work force.

For months that seemed likely because the Yankees were an even more troubled and flawed franchise with suspect pitching and all their starting outfielders either out or limping. But as usual, the Darth Vader of baseball, Steinbrenner, whipsawed his management team into make moves to strengthen the club. They landed Abreu, they are close to getting Hideki Matsui and/or Gary Sheffield off the disabled list and they added pitching strength by grabbing Cory Lidle — another name the Red Sox were targeting.

While the Yankees were adding Lidle to a staff that seemed to be beginning to find itself, the Sox were dealing with starting pitcher Tim Wakefield’s bad back and Beckett’s penchant for winning the hard way — by allowing more home runs than seems wise. Add to that the specter of Doug Mirabelli having to catch (and worse, bat) too many days in a row, and Sox fans are growing queasy.

“We have a long-term plan,” insisted Epstein, as he tried to calm the angry hordes. “As much as we desperately wanted to help the big league team, it would have been short-sighted to sacrifice that long-term plan. It just wasn’t worth it.”

MORE FROM BASEBALL

Baseball Section Front

Mets can’t even plan fan-friendly park properly HBT: Mets lowering outfield fence from 16 feet to 8 Damon holding out for two-year deal HBT: Boras comically confident about Damon's chances HBT: Brandon Webb throws, thinks he’ll be ready for season HBT: O’s might like Washburn — if price really drops HBT: Nationals heavily pursuing Wang FanHouse: Harden, Liriano headline AL x-factors Blyleven: White Sox, Tigers to give Twins challenge Hardball Talk: Blogging on news, rumors, buzz   Baseball Section Front   Add Baseball headlines to your news reader: