Sox Blow Late Lead And Fall 3-2

Jose Contreras pitched a gem on Thursday night holding the Angels to 2 hits and 1 run through the first 6 innings. With 2 out and a man on in the 7th, Jose tried to sneak an inside fastball by McPhearson, and McPhearson deposited it into the seats in right center putting the Halo's ahead 3-2, a lead that they would not relinquish.
This loss should not be pinned on Jose but it can be attributed to the Sox anemic offense of late. They once again were not able to get a hit until the second time through the order. After finally getting some men on base, they choked on almost every scoring opportunity that they were presented with. At one point they had men on 2nd and 3rd with no outs and did not score. That was partly bad luck though, as a wild pitch bounced off the backstop far enough for Molina to get to it in time to throw Iguchi out at the plate, although replay's showed that Iguchi slid under the tag. Other than that though, the only excuse that the Sox can use is that they just suck at the plate right now.
This is the type of loss that drives me nuts. We get another QS out of a starter and fail to back him up. When you get such consistent work out of your rotation, you expect more than a split. The lone bright spot coming out of this game was that Don Paul was replaced in the booth by Black Jack McDowell. I thought he was awesome. He had great analysis and pitching insight, and he wasn't afraid to say, "That is just terrible. Why would he throw that pitch in that situation?" I found him to be 100 times better than DJ, and I'd love it if he came on permanently as a 3rd announcer once Hawk gets better.
The Sox head to Texas for a 3 game set and are sending McCarthy out to the bump for his second career start this evening. It looks as if the Sox will not put him in the pen once El Duque comes off the DL, which in my mind is good news because I'd rather see him getting starts every 5 days at AAA than have him rot away in the pen working maybe an inning a week.
In other news around baseball: That other Chicago team displayed their great karma this afternoon when their golden boy, Mark Prior, took a hard liner off of his elbow on his throwing arm. I hear x-rays were negative, but with the way he was rolling around on the ground in pain after it happend, I wouldn't be surprised if he'll be missing a few starts. Scrub fans can at least take solice in the fact that their team did win, although it was against a team who has won only 4 games on the road all year. (Their 4th road win came against the Scrubs yesterday, a day after the Srubs allowed the Astro's to win their 3rd road game of the season.)