Lead Continues To Evaporate

Last night the Sox had their best opportunity of the season to win a Johan Santana pitched game and they let it slip away. They had scoring opportunities in the 9th and 10th innings of a 1-1 tie and were unable to push across a single run. The loss dropped the Sox record at home in extra inning contests to 1-7 and their lead in the division is now just 1.5 games. The Sox record in games in which they score 2 runs or less is now 15-32. (To put that in perspective, they were 1-44 in such contests last season.)
Tonight the Pale Hose are sending the man whom is currently their best starting pitcher in Jose Conteras (13-7, 3.79 with a record of 9-2 since the All-Star break) out to the mound to face off against the Twins' Kyle Lohse (9-12, 4.16). The Sox need to win this game, even if it is just to stand their ground. Losses tonight and tomorrow coupled with Injun victories over KC and the Sox are a 2nd place ball club, a spot they have not occupied for a single day all season. If that were to happen, I think even the wildcard would become a long shot for this team. No team in more than 100 years of MLB history has ever blown a lead as large as 15 games. If they were to fall behind Cleveland, I'd doubt they would be able to overcome the physiological blow that would resonate from that. Hopefully they'll just notch a few W's, starting tonight, and clinch the division so we won't have to see if that would be the case. Hopefully.