The roster is so thin, you can almost see through it.
This is not lost on Theo Epstein.
``We're going to have to do something," said the general manager. ``We have a bunch of guys who are banged-up and they're day-to-day. We don't have a lot of guys, other than the ones who are on the DL, who are bad enough to go on the DL. But we're not going to be able to go into Oakland the way we are. We're going to have to make some moves."
It was unclear what Epstein has in mind, but he declined to say whether Manny Ramírez would be sent to the disabled list to make room for another body.
Ramírez bowed out of yesterday's game, informing Terry Francona, who was spitting blood in the manager's office during his postgame news conference (he said it was because he took one too many blood thinners), that he was too sore to play. There's no way of knowing when and if Ramírez would be well enough to play in Oakland. Then there's Wily Mo Peña's left wrist injury, the cut on Josh Beckett's right middle finger, Jon Lester's sore back, and Doug Mirabelli's jammed ankle. On and on. Little things are now big things.
Over their last seven games the Sox are hitting .184 (41 for 223) and they looked pathetic against Seattle's Cha Seung Baek, who was making his second start. Baek held the Sox hitless until Ortiz hit his 47th homer of the season with one out in the sixth.
``It's not pretty here as we head into the end of the month," said Epstein, who said he likely will turn to Pawtucket to replenish his roster. ``Everything that could have went wrong has gone wrong. We had a good record there and we can still go out there and put some wins together. There's no lack of effort. The guys are exhausted and injured and are still going out there.
``In times like these there has to be strong leadership. Tito is providing that for the players right now and I can do the same thing in the front office. We can use some of the negative events to galvanize our team," he said.
Epstein will accompany the team to Oakland.
The Sox have slipped 6 1/2 games behind the Yankees and 5 1/2 behind the Twins in the wild-card chase. There will come a time very soon when the scoreboard-watching won't matter anymore.
