9:55 Ooooh, blowing Morales MORE!  Seriously, and we never thought we’d say this, where’s Joe Buck when you need him?  He’s the expert…

9:56 Once again, it didn’t cause him to NOT ground out.

9:57 Q. “Who is this Marc Fein?”

A. “A Jew. A Jew who talks about baseball.  For money.”

9:58 Great play, terrible call–Youk clearly had him, and we’re not being homers.  The replays don’t lie.  Instead, a Gonzalez error.

10:00 Our bananas foster refuse to foster themselves into flame.  Fail.

10:01 Mathis is done, and so are we.  Banana time!

9:28 He flies through the air with the greatest of ease, the daring young man on the flying tra–oh, that’s just Alex Gonzalez, making a relatively routine play.  Wow.

9:29 THANKS TBS.  Now I know what RISP are.  Now explain what “scoring position” means.  Or better yet, “runners!”

9:31 Lester has adorable elf ears.  That is all the news that’s fit to print.

9:32 Figgins is the third K.  Told you they were coming.

9:35 Abreu draws his second walk.  Crowd goes nuts.  Everyone else is clearly as bored as we are.

9:38 Roommate asks if liveblog has mentioned the bananas foster we are about to make.  Crowd goes nuts.  Everyone is less bored now.

9:40 Second roommate, who just walked in, admits this is, in fact, kinda boring.  And he’s from the Midwest, so he knows from boring.

9:41 The bases are loaded.  With two outs.  Are we excited yet? We actually can’t tell.  John Farrell, aka Future Indians Manager, is chatting with him.

9:42 No grand slams this year?  “Well, who on the Angels hits homeruns?  Just Guerrero.  Oh. There’s Guerrero.”  (We have really attentive friends, clearly.)

9:43 That was, perhaps, a bit of a high swing. Moving on now.

9:18   “Kendry Morales is no Mark Teixeira, but he’s getting better all the time.” Did we get Yankee ass-kissing advice from Joe Buck? (Clearly, yes, I get it.  Teixeira was in fact the guy at that corner for a brief period last year.  Still….)

9:20 First hit of the game comes from Alex Gonzalez in the 9 spot. Irony, thy name is Angels game.

9:22 Yep, ain’t no game.  Ellsbury hits it to Lackey to end the half.

9:23 We were about to say how boring this game was, but…what? Interference call mean the Sox have runners at first and second, whih the TBS guys haven’t even caught up with yet…

9:24…and then DP flies out.  Even when it’s not boring this is boring!

And then….an error on a routine play and a bobbled throw led to a 5 run rally for the Sox, and they were off.  Eventually, the Sox won 9-8 in the 9th, but they did it in a weird way: two questionable calsl that would have been the third strike kept the Sox alive with two outs, even though they were down by a run.  Nick Green, the batter, ended up drawing a bases loaded walk, and Alex Gonzalez followed up with a bloop single that plated the winning run.

So, the Sox beat the Angels.  This is hardly newsworthy, since the Angels straight up can’t win at Fenway.  They’ve lost their last ten games there.  But the pitcher who gave up the winning run blamed the umpires.

Closer Brian Fuentes, who blew his seventh save of the season, characterized the umps as too “timid” and “scared” to make calls against the will of the crowd at Fenway, and decided that’s why his team ended up with the L.

Where we come from, they call that being a bad sport.

But this doesn’t work for everyone.  And when it doesn’t, it tends to not work sort of…epically.

This week, it’s Brad Penny–whose first start after being released by the Sox (for whom he was serviceable, but only because he got ridiculous run support) was for the Giants…and involved eight spotless shutout innings.  Last week, it was John Smoltz, for whom Boston clearly didn’t work out.  Since he joined the Cardinals, he’s been stellar.  Smoltz and Boston both wanted the pairing to work, though Smoltz expressed some frustration with the pitching coaches.  Penny spoke highly of the organization as a whole and thanked them for giving him a chance.

So, why are these pitchers so good outside Boston? Not to mention players like Julio Lugo and, even more so, Edgar Renteria, who just don’t reach the same heights they have with other teams or, maybe worse, don’t fulfill what looks like their potential.

A lot of people might pass this off on the media, but we don’t think that’s it.  Certainly, there’s a lot of media pressure in Boston: maybe more than anyplace else, especially since 2004 and even more since ‘07.  The downside of a citywide culture of sports excellence?  Fans and media who expect more of the same.

But we’re also seeing something else here: maybe a downside to the clubhouse culture that’s been so vaunted.  Hell, we’ve vaunted it ourselves.  If that’s a verb.  (Even if it isn’t!)

We know the clubhouse is supportive of slumps, of injuries, of its players.  David Ortiz shows us that.  But this is a clubhouse that’s vulnerable to non-clubhouse guys.  Nomar caused problems, Manny caused even bigger ones. A truly strong culture wouldn’t be affected so strongly, but this one was.

Not that any of the guys I’m talking about–Penny, Smoltz, et al–are clubhouse cancers: far from it.  But we remember Doug Mientkiewicz* talking about how on the planes, he would try to read, which nobody else did, and he’d get mocked–goodnaturedly of course–to the point that he couldn’t read.

Our theory’s simple: if you don’t fit the mold, the rest of the pressure gets to be too much, especially if you’ve come from a place like Atlanta (considered a good team because of a tradition of what we’ll call low-key excellence, and with a respectful media presence and fanbase).  If you don’t make friends right away, if you don’t connect, even though everyone in the clubhouse may want to adopt you right into the fold–if that doesn’t work for you, Boston’s too much.

The upside? Players like Alex Gonzalez, who hit two homeruns all season…until August 15th when, once acquired by the Red Sox, he went on a tear. He’s hit four more since.

So maybe it isn’t a curse, but it’s happened too often for Theo Epstein and his hot-shit Moneyball guys to ignore.  There’s no stats in this post for a reason. Some things (just ask Jeter!) are intangible.

*You probably won’t believe us, but we spelled it right on the first try! That’s the ONLY time this has ever happened.

Alex Gonzalez to the Red Sox

The struggling Sox’ current best defensive lineup would feature Casey Kotchman (recently acquired from Atlanta after spending years with the Angels) at first, Kevin Youkilis at third.  But the Sox can’t hit lately, and as a result they need the resurgent Mike Lowell in their lineup daily as long as his body holds up.  THAT, in turn, means they need some compensatory defense at short, since Lowell–a gold glove third baseman–doesn’t have the range he once did, especially this year given his injury.  Gonzalez isn’t a heavy bat, but his range to his right is phenomenal, so acquiring him means you can slot Lowell back in at third and let Youk and Victor Martinez have the days off they want or need at first without sacrificing power entirely.  This is big.

Alex Rios to the White Sox

This one was the shocker: a longtime Blue Jay put on waivers–salary dump, clearly.  Four teams professed interest or put in claims, the White Sox won the war.  Rios can play all three outfield positions, giving the White Sox a way to rest the aging Jermaine Dye and Scott Podsednik.  He hits lefties and righties about equally well, too, so you can put him in the lineup every day.  And so far, his RBI numbers have made a difference.  To us, this could push the White Sox over the top.

Greg Zaun and Russ Springer to Tampa Bay Rays

Zaun has spent time with many clubs, mostly Baltimore.  He gives the Rays the kind of veteran bench presence they need if they’re going to pull it together and contend again in their “young guys reaching the playoffs for the first time” mode, as last year.  Springer, a bullpen pitcher claimed off waivers from the As, has bounced around like crazy, but is arguably a serviceable bullpen arm against a righty-heavy lineup (lefties bat .352 off him this year, which means he’ll be useless against the Yankees, but useful against the Sox, both of whom the Rays have to deal with if they want to make the playoffs.)  His ERA on the year is actually slightly lower than his career ERA, and in the last 30 days, his ERA’s under 3. 00.  Good acquisitions both, though under the radar.

Carl Pavano to the Minnesota Twins

…Actually, we’re kidding.  We think Pavano’s done.

Daniel Cabrera to the Diamondbacks

Cabrera is an enigma…he was supposed to be so good, but has struggled with command despite at times having overpowering stuff.  He’s still a couple years shy of thirty and can hit the high nineties on the gun, but Baltimore kept using him as a starter and finding they couldn’t depend on him.  In last year’s down market, he went unsigned in the off season.  The Diamondbacks can use his speed, assuming he can be consistent.  He’s not currently on the roster, so we don’t know how much of a difference he’ll make, but he’s worth noting.

These won’t be the last of them, as we’re still waiting for a lot of people–Ryan Freel et al–to clear waivers or be claimes, but in the meantime who else do you think made a difference? Sound off in the comments….