WHERE DID THE MAGIC GO?

The ebb and flow of a baseball season is only predictable to a point. There will be highs and lows, but trying to determine how it will all play out is near impossible. Just ask any Red Sox player about the last three games. After putting together a stretch of play that saw Boston win 10 of 11 games, the Red Sox are now currently in a three-game losing streak after dropping a tough 5-4 decision to Tampa Bay in 10 innings. For everything that went right for the Red Sox during that stellar stretch of play... Well, let's just say that the opposite is occuring right now. And it's just unexplainable as to why it's suddenly turned around so quickly.

For roughly two weeks the Red Sox got clutch hitting, solid pitching, played good defense and seemed to get a good bounce when they needed one. However, that all started to disappear in the previous two games against the Los Angeles Angels. On Friday evening, frustration set in. The Red Sox gave up an early lead and failed to capitalize on numerous scoring opportunities leaving a grand total of 23 runners stranded on base. That included a stretch of play where the Red Sox had the go-ahead run in scoring position in the last three innings of play.

Most frustrating was the fact that the Red Sox allowed Tampa starting pitcher Matt Garza to get through five innings of work after forcing him to throw 53 pitches through two innings. That included a 40 pitch second inning in which the Red Sox scored three runs. However, the Red Sox left Garza get up off the floor. Instead of making Garza throw as many pitches as possible the hitters started swinging early in the count. Garza threw just eight pitchers in the third inning, 12 in the fourth and 10 in the fifth. In that time Tampa rallied to take a 4-3 lead.

The positives to draw out of this game are few, but significant. They left 23 men on base, but that's better than being shut down by the opposing pitching. The pen managed to work 3.2 innings before giving up a run. Granted it was the winning run, but they kept the game tied up allowing the Red Sox a chance to win.

That's baseball ladies and gents. When you are playing well it seems like you are never going to lose another game. But in the blink of an eye a winning streak can turn into a losing streak. Let's just hope this current streak isn't as long as the winning streak was.