Would you believe E1? Red Sox 4, Tigers 3

Honestly, where do you start on this one? Are you just glad Justin Verlander didn't get tagged with a loss? Disappointed to see the Tigers walk off the field while the Red Sox celebrate at home plate two games in a row? Are you numb to it by now, as Detroit suffered a 15th loss in its last 19 games?

I really don't know any more. With the injuries and the ugly defeats (two walkoffs, one no-hitter) all piling up, it's like an emotional beat down until you just don't care anymore. Care about baseball, sure. Stomach the bad baseball? Possibly. Get upset over loss after loss? Kind of hard to do.

In this case, the Tigers were being two-hit. What Justin Verlander did really didn't matter. He had little assistance from anyone, and with a depleted bullpen just had to gut it out as deep into the game a he could. Fortunately he did. Meanwhlie Ryan Raburn in the outfield is starting to remind me of Charlie Brown. He goes with gusto for every catch and AAUGH! the ball skitters away while he's on the ground. Or maybe AAUGH is the noise I make when seeing Raburn in the field. Either way.

But the Tigers rallied in the ninth, against all odds. They got on base. They got big hits from Miguel Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta. They tagged Jonathan Papelbon with a blown save. But not a loss. A double-play assured that.

On the mound in the ninth, Brad Thomas -- the one guy you wish Jim Leyland would overuse so he'd be unavailable for say, a week -- allowed two base runners. Rookie Robbie Weinhardt took matters into his own hand when Marco Scutaro bunted. He couldn't leave well enough alone and had to get there in time to make the play himself, and had to throw the ball.

He threw it away.

And then Scutaro's hands are in the air celebrating and the Sox had another walkoff win. Weinhardt was left to silently trudge off the field while a deflated dugout of players emptied into the clubhouse.

Even if you're getting a bit numb to it, that loss still had to sting a bit.

The Tigers enter their off day seven games out of first. They'll meet the division-leading Sox for a series in Detroit when they get back to it. Depending on what level of optimist you are, the season is either over or a bad-showing this week will all but assure that it's over.

Semantics, maybe. But if you're still debating it and still here reading about it, bad news: you still care. I don't doubt more pain is in our future.