Red Sox Lose Again

What? Javier Lopez is coming in next inning? NO!!!!!!

The Sox dropped a massive farty poop stink bomb last night, and this was probably one of the most frustrating Red Sox games I've watched in the Theo era.
First, they got off to a great start, rallying for three 2-out runs in the first inning (no thanks to David Ortiz, who I'm afraid might now be what most classify as "ineffective" or "bad"). The rally was encouraging: JD Drew hit a big RBI double (off of a left-handed pitcher!!!!), and Mike Lowell also got off the schnide with a big RBI single. Three runs in the first inning was very promising, especially considering that the Sox had only scored like 9 runs in their first 7 games.*
Unfortunately, the difference between the Red Sox of 2009 (so far) and the Red Sox of past years is that the starting pitchers now are bad, as opposed to good (Tim Wakefield should probably be at the top of the staff right now). Dice-K (more like Dice-BB) was a sloppy soup sandwich in the bottom half of the first frame, giving up FIVE RUNS on five hits and two sloppy walks. To be fair, Jack Cust's RBI single was a weak bloop, but Matt Holliday's double was not, and probably would have gone 950 feet in Coors Field.
Obviously after the first inning ended, the Sox offense went into hibernaysh, because coming back from a deficit is hard, and most of these dudes don't want to try that hard (not really, but that's my hypothesis).
What was encouraging about this game was Justin Masterson, his cool crooked hat, and (pretty much) the rest of the bullpen. J-Mast (right?) pitched 4 scoreless innings, striking out 6 and giving up only 2 hits. The rest of the pen was equally effective: Manny Delcarmen struck out 3 in 1.2 scoreless innings, and new dude Ramon Ramirez (who is quickly emerging as the most effective set-up man we've had since Okajima was good) threw gaseous gases, and Okajima actually was good and pitched 2 hitless innings. Unfortunately, after Papelbon there really wasn't anyone left, which means that J-Lo had to come in and lose the game for the Sox.
Overall, this game was slightly encouraging. The bullpen, which was a major weakness last year, has become a huge strength. Unfortunately the starters are sucking on a fat dick, and things are looking pretty bleak for Lester, as we discussed last week (although a lot of horseshit hits are falling in against him, so eventually things have to even out). Hopefully the offense can be like, not bad, and begin to try, and possibly even score some runs. It's really starting to look like the Sox may have to go out and get a bat by the trading deadline, or possibly sooner, because if they keep this up then they'll be out of it by June. I'm not freaking out yet, but if our starters don't get it into gear soon, and Ortiz doesn't stop rolling over off-speed pitches then we may have some real cause for concern. This game sucked, but it showed some promise.
Plus, Wakefield's going tonight, and he's everyone's early Cy Young favorite.*

Red Sox right now - Shitty

*Not fact-based, but likely