This is not the sort of headline I was looking for from the Red Sox - especially when the rebounding is needed against Tampa Bay.

Having written that sentence I don't know what else there is to say. But maybe there is. Maybe it is about slumps generally. Baseball is a game about coping with loss. Most at bats do not result with a man on base. Most pitchers get pulled before the ninth. Only rarely do teams dominate and that is becoming rarer and rarer in this era of equity. But that is not why you watch or do anything in sports - you want to dominate, win or at least get the guy in from third with no one out. I was thinking I was watching the 1984 Expos last night, Al Oliver not quite pulling off the big play.

Man stranded is not like doing well in horseshoes. Near counts for nought. But I will watch again. Think to myself "go Dinardo, go!" Then two years from now I will see him playing middle relief for the Reds or Seattle and think - hey, he used to play for the Sox.