Sox Need More Out of Gonzalez

There are downsides to making over $20 million a year.

For one thing, you play every day. (Only Adrian Gonzalez,  Dustin Pedroia, and David Ortiz have played in every game -- and Ortiz is a DH.) So on your day off, some punk in pajamas writes that your two home runs and .250 average aren't cutting it.

And he writes this the day after you struck out with the bases loaded to end the seventh inning in a 4-2 loss. Against Oakland.

Therein lies the proverbial rub. It wasn't Roy Halladay who got out of that jam. The best hitters are supposed to rack up big numbers against middling pitchers.

Oakland came into this series 11-12, with a team batting average of .205. That average jumped 10 points in this series. I don't even have to say it, but here goes -- you can't drop two out of three at home to Oakland.

I really like AG; he's a got a great attitude, and I root for him. It's not his fault that good is not enough.

But it just isn't. The Sox need him to come up bigger. They need great.