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August 16, 2004

Stop Me If You've Seen This One Before. Sunday's 5-4 loss to Chicago had a bit of everything:

* Lots of Red Sox left on base, including the bases loaded in the 1st and 8th innings and two men on in both the 3rd and 9th innings

* Speaking of the 3rd inning, another runner waved home by Dale "EZ Pass" Sveum who was gunned down, ending the inning (Eric Van examines The Baserunning Outs Litany)

* More injuries; Kevin Youkilis hurt on the play (bruised right leg, x-rays negative, day-to-day) at the plate, adding injury to insult

* Poor run support (again) for Bronson Arroyo (who pitched another great game)

* Poor plate discipline and wasted at-bats; after making Mark Buehrle throw 74 pitches in the first 3 innings (37-22-15), he then threw only 36 in the next four frames (8-10-11-7)

* The continued overuse of Alan Embree and Mike Timlin (both of whom have been sucking mightily, especially Timlin) and the avoidance of better pitchers like Keith "Hey Tito, Whatever Happened To Those 2-inning Saves?" Foulke, Mike Myers and Ramiro Mendoza (did I just write that?)

* Bad lineup decisions; batting Orlando Cabrera 6th, who ended the 1st inning and tapped out weakly to the pitcher to end the game (although to his credit, he did get 3 hits, singling on the play that Youkilis was thrown out on, doubling and scoring in the 6th and keeping a rally going in the 8th with another single)

The Red Sox, Angels and Rangers are tied for the wild card. Toronto faces Derek Lowe at Fenway tonight.

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