Thomas puts a big hurtin' on Wake, Sox

Toronto 6, Sox 1
WP: McGowan (11-9)
LP: Wakefield (16-11)
HRs: TOR-Thomas, 3 (25)

Frank Thomas, Spring Training '07 (insert Jolly Green Giant joke here)

SUMMARY
Tim Wakefield got lit up for the third straight start and Big Frank Thomas clubbed three homers, two off of Wake, as the Jays handed the sputtering Sox their third loss in the last four games.

#1 STUNNER Thomas 3-4, 3R, 5RBI, 3HRs
There's a reason this guy was nicknamed the Big Hurt back in his MVP-winning heyday with the White Sox.

BTW, the last time he had three homers in a game? Sept 15, 1996 at Fenway against Wakefield. (cue the Twilight Zone theme please)

PAN's FAUN Wake 6IP, 7H, 4ER, 2BB, 2K, 2HRs
Much like Schill yesterday, the wily veteran wasn't horrible, but when your team is in the thick of the pennant race and you have the third-most wins in the majors, you gotta do better than that.

RECAP
At first I was upset that I forgot to set the DVR so I could watch this game after I got home from my son's LL game (they lost 16-7, but at least he played well).

So I when I got home just after nine and turned it on, I was expecting to see the Sox leading big in the fifth or sixth inning.

Then I was upset I watched any of it.

With an NL-esque run time of 2 hours and 13 minutes, I tuned in just in time to witness Jays DH Frank Thomas take Kyle Snyder yard in the 8th inning for what the TSN announcers informed me at the top of their lungs was BIG FRANK'S THIRD HOMER OF THE BALLGAME!

And I thought the game I had just come from was ugly.

For the third time in four games the Boston Red Sox played as if someone had a foot on their throats, taunting them with threats like " if you think you're gonna win the friggin divison this year you got another thing coming, you bunch of fucking Townie punks!"

While the Stankees were busy dropping 8 runs on the hapless Orioles, Boston's offense continued to do its best turtle impersonation, refusing to come out of its shell when everyone is staring at them waiting for it to happen.

And now the division lead is down to 3 1/2 games.

Magic number? Hah! How 'bout a magic potion to end this nauseating free fall into David Lynch-land?

I didn't see the game, save for one homer run in the 8th, so I'm not going to bother analyzing it from low lights and box scores. Bottom line is Wakefield has continued to fall apart since a minor back injury caused Clay Buchholz to make history, allowing 26 hits and 17 earned runs in his last three starts covering just 12 2/3 innings for an atrocious 12.08 ERA.

And the offense, after failing to cash in on numerous scoring opportunities while losing 2 of 3 to New York over the weekend, continued it's dreary stretch where it's been either feast--scoring 10 twice, 13, and 16 runs--or famine--averaging just over four runs in the rest of the games--this month.

Tonight Boston managed just five hits, two by RSN poster boy Jacoby Ellsbury, who atoned for his first hitless game last night since his callup on the 1st, and just one run batted in, that coming of course off the bat of Professional Hitter/RBI machine Mike Lowell.

That's it. One run and five knocks. Against Toronto's talented-yet-raw righty Dustin McGowan, whom the Sox tuned up for six runs and eighth hits in five innings of a 9-4 Boston win in mid July.

So it's come to this. Boston, after enjoying a seemingly insurmountable 14 1/2 game lead way back in May now has to keep winning in order to ensure they wear their first division crown since the mid-ninties.

Because suddenly that magic number is looking more like a warning light.