Sox drop two of three to Oakland

(John E. Sokolowski-US Presswire)

Disappointing is the only way to describe these past three games for the Sox. The A's held on to win 4-2 tonight and in what was a great opportunity to get on a roll against a struggling A's team, the Sox go on to lose two out of three games and drop to 11-13 on the year.

Besides the positive performance from the BULLPEN and the promising debut of Will Middlebrooks (2-3 with a double, stolen base, and a walk), there was nothing really positive to take out of this series. The offense was abysmal, Adrian Gonzalez continues to struggle, Kevin Youkilis was put on the 15-day DL, and the starting pitching was just O.K.

The Red Sox currently have $78+ million of their payroll on the DL. You can make all the excuses in the world for this team, but the bottom line is they just have to play better.

The offense was 0-12 with runners in scoring position tonight and left ten men on base. Teams will lose nine times out of ten with a stat as miserable as that.

Daniel Bard cruised through five innings, but fell apart in the sixth. It seems to be a reoccurring theme for Red Sox starters where they look great for the first half of the game, but have that one inning where they implode and allow three or more runs to score. Something that needs to be fixed, fast.

And you may be thinking, relax, it's only May. Well here's the deal. The Red Sox missed the playoffs by one game last year. Every game matters whether its April, May, or September.

The Sox have a day off tomorrow before hosting a three-game series with the Orioles who are off to a hot start in 2012. Josh Beckett has a sore lat muscle and will miss his start on Saturday. Aaron Cook will fill in for Beckett and try to make a case as to why he belongs in the rotation.

Beckett is expected to make his following start on May 10 against the Indians.