You are better than this.  That is the reason there is so much frustration in New England as September winds to it’s inevitable conclusion next week.  You hear the panic, the anger, the disbelief in radio talk show callers and television sports hosts.  The emotions run the gamut, and there are many good reasons to be frustrated.  The bottom line though, is that this team is better than they are playing and it is frustrating to see them potentially flush an entire season down the toilet before they get their focus right and figure it out.

If this was Cleveland, than I guess we might just accept this as par for the course, and say, “Nice job fellas, at least you made it interesting.”  But this is not Cleveland and we have and continue to have high expectations for this Boston Baseball Team and we should.  It seems like collectively the team has started to focus on the wrong things.  That is looking at the big picture, instead of focusing on the task at hand ahead of them right now.  If I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times last weekend, just split with the Rays and you will make the playoffs.  I think the Red Sox Players were even thinking that, well three losses later where has that thought gotten us.  The

You can't sweep unless you win the first one.

focus needs to be on the here and now, on the today.  What can you do to win this game now?  One of the reasons the Patriots are always so good is that they have taken that mantra and followed it to the extreme.  In everything.  Ask them about the playoffs and they will say, “That’s a long ways away, we need to focus on the Buffalo Bills this weekend, they are 2-0 and a really good team.”  Then they break it down into what match ups they really need to focus on winning, and then they win that match up, most of the time.  They would never say “When we make the playoffs we will get our pitching in order.”  Or “We only need to win four or five more games to wrap this up.”   They would say, “I don’t even want to talk about the playoffs, that will happen later, today we need to focus on beating the Baltimore Orioles, who took two out of three from the Rays last week.  They are going to present a challenge and we need to play our best to win.”

All of the extra stuff, playoffs, and dare I even think it, winning in the playoffs are a result of playing good baseball.  Playing good baseball is a result of doing the little things well, to give yourself the best chance to win the game.  Making the catch and the throw that you can make.  Focus on just doing your job! (Patriots major mantra).  You can’t try to hit a home run every time you are up, or you will fail.  You try to work the count and get a pitch to hit, when you get that pitch hit it hard.   Do that every time and good things are going to happen.  When several people have good focus, then you have a chance to be good.  When a whole group of people focus on the right things, you have a chance to be great.

And Pedroia Will Lead Them

The Red Sox still have a chance to be great.  They just need to adjust their focus. Maybe as fans we should adjust our focus as well.  For example, John Lackey, has performed far under his capability all year, there is no debating that.  But focusing on his past failure will not help anyone today.  If Lackey pitches lights out in three or four games in a row, is all forgiven?  Of course it is.  We can’t focus on what might happen if the Red Sox lose, that is the defeatist attitude, we can focus on what happens when they play this double-header today.   Don’t think about the play offs, they will come or not come as a byproduct of what happens this week.  Focus on what is in front of you and you will have a much more enjoyable last week of the regular season.  If  Pedroia and company can learn to do the same it will be a very enjoyable final week indeed.