Kevin Millar had only 45 seconds to circle under Chone Figgins' pop fly in the first game after the break and managed to approach the approximate area of touch-down in such a zig-zag fashion that the ball landed fair, the inning continued and the Sox and poor Derek Lowe (who suffers more than anyone as a result of these stone gloves) got shelled. Millar also got to show off his arm in that game with a five-hopper to the plate. If Millar played on my softball team, he would be the best hitter (right?) and our slowest outfielder with the weakest arm. On the plus side, Millar belted his sixth home run of the season tonight, pulling even with Coco Crisp, though he still trails Coco 34 RBIs to 26 despite having 51 more ABs on the season (300 to 249). Yes, Millar is averaging a home run every 50 at-bats. I will be closely monitoring the Kevin v. Coco power comparison down the stretch.

Watching Nomar play shortstop has become unbearable. He moves like an unlubricated Tin Man. On Darren Erstad's two-run single over his head in the third game of the Anaheim series, I swear he jumped four inches off the ground, maybe not even. On a slowly hit ball up the middle in Monday night's calamity against the Mariners, Nomar looked certain to get there until he sort of lay down in the dirt and waved at the ball as it rolled by. Then, in the same game, he dropped a throw from Gabe Kapler that should have resulted in a putout at second. The throw was pretty poor, but any good shortstop would have made the play. This was the third ball on the trip that hit him in the glove and bounced out. He failed to squeeze a soft liner by Tim Salmon in the Saturday loss after diving unnecessarily to his left and he bobbled the suddenly routine popup that caromed off Wakefield in the same game. And then the drop on Monday. Think of the montage of Nomar's 20 worst pays since returning. Stumbling over second base, dropping the ball, booting grounders, throwing splitters in the dirt to first. He's about as smooth as the legs at an Indigo Girls concert.

Mark Bellhorn, sadly, has continued the recent tradition of Red Sox second basemen with below average range, hands, instincts, etc. From the aborted Wil Cordero experiment, through Jose Offerman and Todd Walker, we've had some beauts. If only Pokey could stay healthy and hit the ball out of the infield more than once every ten plate appearances.

2) We may be the worst baserunning team in Major League history.

I wrote a column a while back, throwing Dale Sveum under a bus for his terrible base coaching instincts. But in his defense, it is very hard to coach terrible base runners. The Sox get terrible reads, bad jumps and, of course, have almost no wheels. Just as Peter Gammons was naming Jason Varitek the catcher on his "all they play the game the right way" team, Tek was getting doubled off first on a line drive to the shortstop FOR THE SECOND TIME on the brief road trip. The first one was incomprehensible. On a soft, broken-bat liner to short - a ball that never looked like a hit or a ground ball - Tek bolted from first and was easily doubled off. Then, on the second, he got doubled off when Gabe Kapler hit a line drive at Jolbert Cabrera's shoetops. Jerry Remy, in his infinite forgiveness, suggested that Varitek was in a tight spot as to whether to go or stay home. I say, it's an easy call. If Cabrera short hops the hot smash, it's going to be a double play no matter how hard Tek runs. If Tek runs and Cabrera snares it on the fly, it's also an easy DP. The only chance you have in that situation is to stay put and hope he squeezes it on the fly. This is why coaches tell us all our lives "to see a line drive through" before we attempt to advance.

Later in the Monday night loss to Seattle, Terry Francona put on a hit-and-run with Bellhorn at first and a lefty on the mound. Bellhorn was so crossed up by Gary Shirrell's delivery that he was going almost all the way back to the bag on the pitch. But the crazy thing was, he would still take off when the guy went home. So he was about eight feet off the bag when the ball reached the plate. This reminds me so much of all those strike-em-out-throw-em-out DPs in the playoffs against the Yankees last year. If you can't get any kind of a jump, there is only downside to sending the runner, no upside. You won't prevent a double play, you won't go first to third, you won't even open up a hole for the hitter to shoot at because the middle infielders can hold their ground until the ball is put in play and still beat the runner to the bag. The bad things, however, can still happen: caught stealing and line drive into a double play. I know people complain about our station-to-station approach, but your strategy needs to match your personnel, and, if the Sox hit-and-run 10 times this year it will probably be 10 times too many.

3) The Sox can't bunt.

Not a huge deal, but worth mentioning. And again, probably never a very good idea with this team, since our baserunners get such poor jumps and reads and are generally pretty slow. Even a B+ bunt won't get some of these runners over. And nothing kills a potential rally like bunting into a fielder's choice.

So we sit back and wait for Big Papi or Manny to hit a three-run dinger. Lord knows they've hit a bunch. But when they don't, we lose.

I don't think this team is good enough to make the playoffs in a vastly improved American League. But, that said, I'm not as panicky about the closing window of opportunity that I've associated with Pedro these last seven seasons. I think as long as Mr. Henry owns the team and the Kid is putting the roster together, the window of opportunity will be open. We're just not sailing through it this year.

I met Ty Law last week and he said he's so happy he doesn't have to play against Corey Dillon any more because the guy is a stud. Just a thought to ease the pain of the pending not-quite finish that awaits the Sox.

Sveum Old Song and Dance