What a joke this has become - the novelty of serving up gopher balls was tiresome in 2004 - but they keep flinging him out there. If this was a tight race, I'd be livid.

Wakefield having a spot in the rotation at this point is a complete and utter joke.

Lackey 7 last starts, ERA 6.28-5.98. 23 ERs. Has the third most run support in MLB

Wakefield (not counting tonight) 7 last starts ERA 4.80-4.97. 27 ERs Has the 15th most run support in MLB.

I'm not seeing a whole lot of diff between these two lately. some, not a whole lot. Are we kicking them both out? Cause as a sixth (8th if you want to count Buch and Dice-K) starter, Wake is fine.

Don't get me wrong i hate Lackey as well - I usually skip the first three to four innings of these games out of fear

3-Not that I have a dog in this fight, Dan, but unearned runs count as well.

And I'm rooting for Lackey, because everybody hates him.

3-Not that I have a dog in this fight,

Ah yes, he's known around these parts as Teddy the Impartial.

Trying to evaluate Wakefield while not counting unearned runs is silly. The knuckleball causes passed balls which end up deflating his ERA even though they're due to his performance rather than the catcher 90% of the time.

In Wakes last 4 starts before tonight he had 3 QS (his non QS was 8 IP, 4 R), with a 4.08 ERA.

In the teams last 4 losses with Wake pitching they scored 1,3,4 and 5 runs (3.3 RPG).

The A's crushed the Yankees pitching over the past 3 games, Wake may have run into a hot team.

In Lowries last 3 starts with Wake on the mound he has committed an error.

The timing of this shitty start was particularly bad, coming right after Miller's impressive start against the Rangers. Wakefield's not going to get many more chances at 200 Red Sox wins if Miller keeps pitching well.

Last night was a great example of how insignificant the regular season has become for the Yankees and Red Sox. The Sox are effectively using a six-man rotation right now, which given the rigor of their schedule lately isn't a bad idea (lots of road games, including lots of travel without off-days; three games in less than 24 hours this weekend; the three-games-in-two-days series with Tampa before heading right back on the airplane, etc.). That said, I feel like the last six weeks have been a playoff roster experiment, with the goal of having everybody healthy and right by October 1st. Tim Wakefield will have nothing to do with their playoff rotation, and Andrew Miller won't, either - the difference is that Miller may have something to do with their 2012 rotation, so I'd rather see Miller out there regularly.

But right now, Tito spends most of his time asking questions like:

1) Can Aviles play enough positions passably well, and hit lefties enough, to be a reliable part of the team?
2) Is Youkilis getting healthy?
3) Do I have four good arms in the bullpen?
4) Is Bedard going to be peaking around October 1st?
5) Does Lackey have his #### together?
6) Can we get Crawford right this season?

But whether or not the Sox win two out of three this weekend, or one out of three, doesn't mean a whole lot outside of the context of answering questions like the ones above. If Boston goes 16-15 the rest of the way, they'll be 96-66. For the closest WC competitor (Tampa) to win 97 games, they'll have to go 26-6 the rest of the way. It's not happening.