If Boston Gets Swept By Cleveland Today, Red Sox Nation May Implode

The Red Sox, predicted by many to win it all this year, are still without a win five games into the season. Naturally, there's a discussion board up on the Globe website today titled "Panic Time?" Is it? Last night against Cleveland, Kevin Youkilis attempted to intentionally drop a line drive to turn a double play. He didn't make the tag on Travis Buck, Jason Varitek did not get the memo, and the Sox gave up a sixth-inning run to fall behind 4-2. The WTAM announcers were thrilled to have witnessed such a catastrophe ( you can find video of the play here; our MLB friends have requested that we pull our clip).

There's something touchingly familiar about Boston's early futility this season, even though we don't expect it to influence fan turnout at Fenway (there were just over 9,500 in the stands in Cleveland last night), and even though we don't expect the losing to last. Perspective is always lacking early in the baseball season: the Red Sox, along with the rest of the league, have played 3 percent of regular season games thus far.

Jon Lester's on the mound today, and they're scoreless in the third inning. The Sox take on the Yankees this weekend, so we're looking for another fahkin' oh-fowah turnaround that starts today. And if it doesn't? That'll be like, 3.7 percent of their games. Panic time.

Youkilis on botched play: 'It might have caught 'Tek off-guard' [Providence Journal]