Boston 8, Texas 4.

The knock on Stephen McGee at A&M -- once he finally got the chance to quarterback a real offense in his senior year -- was that he had a tendency to hold the ball in the pocket a second too long. Don't have to go off the scouting reports any longer -- that potentially devastating hole in his swing showed up with flying colors Thursday night, huh? (We're taking your calls.) Ain't got no problems until you have third-string quarterback problems. Unless you have closer problems. That was a painful baseball loss, all things considered. The faintly silver lining is that it's mid-August, and the fact that a ninth inning like that could hurt that bad this late in the season sure beats Stephen McGee water cooler talk to get through your sports day. And of course, one loss is one loss, a lesson this resilient team has taught us many times in 2009. There are developing concerns, at catcher and at two other spots in that bullpen, to go along with a few massive production issues offensively, but again, despite a fairly identifiable list of things about this club that are impaired, if not broken, there's still a chance in front of a couple hopefully packed houses tonight and tomorrow to finish this series atop the AL Wild Card standings. Don't underappreciate that mid-August chance. Let's go, Derek.