What the hell was that?

So much for the brief burst of optimism after the Blue Jays series. The Red Sox were swept by the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards this weekend. That's right. Swept. By a team that is now 4-2 against the Red Sox and 3-16 against everyone else.

I had said earlier in the week that the real test for the 2010 Red Sox would come in this upcoming week, when they play the Angels and Yankees. I didn't anticipate that they would fail miserably at the pop quiz this weekend. It's just an embarrassing disaster.

Two of the losses were in extra innings. In the other, they came out on the short end of another slugfest. Daisuke Matsuzaka looked pretty good - for four innings - until he fell apart in the 5th on Saturday.

The problems are pretty obvious. Three of the supposed big hitters in the lineup, David Ortiz, J.D. Drew and Victor Martinez are hitting .159, .214 and .233 respectively, with a combined 27 RBI. Other than Clay Buchholz at 2.19, the other 5 members of the starting rotation this year have ERAs ranging from 4.50 (Lackey) to 11.57 (Daisuke). Beckett and Wake are both over 6.

Just four weeks in, the Sox are 7 behind the Rays and 5.5 games behind the Yankees for the wild card. I know it's still early, but if they don't get their act together right now, they are going to dig themselves too big a hole to get out of.

No better time to start than tomorrow night against the Angels!