Published August 31, 2010

Strike. (AP)

Dan Shaugnessey is sure of it:

We can all stop now. We can stop scoreboard watching, and doing math tricks, and harboring silly hope that there’s a big surge ahead that will thrust the Red Sox into the 2010 playoffs.

Better to cease with the torment now and accept the obvious. The Sox are not going to be in the hunt in October. The Boston baseball season is going to end Sunday, Oct. 3, at Fenway Park.

The Sox, decimated by injuries, are seven games back from the tied-for-first New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.

The Herald, too, makes this slightly less dire assessment:

There is, however, an acceptance of this reality: The Red Sox are a longshot to make the playoffs.

The first Patriots game of the regular season is just two Sundays away. It’s practically winter already. Just sayin’…

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