It never felt right from the beginning, and it doesn’t feel right at the end.
Seven games out of the wild card, the Red Sox enter September with almost no hope for October, something that has happened just one other time since 2003.
A better start in April, better health in June and July and a better bullpen in August, and this could have been a September to remember. Instead, the time has come to cross that bridge to 2011.
Will free agents Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre be back? Will Jonathan Papelbon and Jacoby Ellsbury be traded? Is Jayson Werth worth it? Or will Carl Crawford be the guy?
The GM started to raise the white flag Tuesday by trading reliever Manny Delcarmen to the Rockies for a prospect, but Epstein later told the media that he wasn’t quite ready to sign the surrender papers.
“It’s kind of like what the Supreme Court said about pornography: ‘You’ll know it when you see it,’” GM?Theo Epstein said. “Right now, we’re not eliminated. We’re seven games back and we have a month to play — we can get extremely hot.
“But if we’re not able to accomplish that and we reach a point where we’re no longer playing for this year and we’re eliminated, then obviously you take a look at some pieces for the future.”
