Wash, Rinse, Repeat - IV

This is the fifth time since September 1st that Shank has either devoted a column to or tweeted about the state of the Red Sox bullpen:

Outlined against the late Fenway sky, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse rode again Friday night. In dramatic lore they are known as Death, Destruction, Pestilence, and Famine, but those are only aliases. Their real names are Ryan Brasier, Brandon Workman, Matt Barnes, and Joe Kelly.

And the Red Sox are going to try to win 10 more playoff games with this motley crew hired by Dave Dombrowski?

Apologies to Grantland Rice for stealing his great lead, but desperate times call for big-time hyperbole.

And Shank's just the guy to give it to us!

The Red Sox hung on to beat the Yankees, 5-4, in Game 1 of the AL Division Series, but the overall takeaway was not good. It’s hard to fathom the 108-win Sox getting this done 10 more times in October. The Yankees left 10 runners on base and went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position.

Dombrowski is a renowned architect of baseball teams, but his fatal flaw always has been bullpen assembly. Dombro’s poor relief corps cost him the 2013 AL Championship Series when his superior Detroit Tigers succumbed to a Boston team because Joaquin Benoit surrendered a grand slam to David Ortiz in the eighth inning of pivotal Game 2. It turned the whole series around.

Guess we're fucked now, right?