Adios April

April ended almost as poorly for the Sox as it had begun. After seeming to recover from their early season slump, and having won six of seven on a west coast swing, the Sox reverted to early season form by dropping four of five. First, they lost twice to the Orioles at Camden, once when Bard gave a game away after the Sox had rallied to tie things up in the eighth. Lester closed out the series in Baltimore with another strong performance, and the Sox avoided a sweep.

But then they returned to Fenway to face the lowly Mariners, who came to town with the worst record in the AL West, and proceeded to drop the first two games of the home stand. Last night, they wasted a pretty good effort by Lackey, who gave up only two runs over six innings, but got no support from the bats. Nothing; nada; zip; zero; bupkiss. And today they have to deal with King Felix, who too often has had their number (along with most everyone else's number the past couple years). A mariners' sweep? In Fenway? What a thought.

So anyway, Boston closed April four games under five hundred, or nine games behind the pace they need to make it to the post season. It's not yet time to panic, as the west coast swing demonstrated. This is a team that can string together a bunch of wins. But unfortunately, so far in 2011, it's also a team that can put together a very impressive losing streak. Let's hope, however, that it was just a bad month, a real bad month, and that May will bring us better results, and a chance to get back on track this summer. Go Sox.