The Re-Trounce

In baseball, the only thing worse than the Trounce is the Re-Trounce. Both are defeats, but one is considerably more painful.

In the Trounce, the winning team, let's call them the Yankees, scores an insane number of runs against the losing team, let's call them the Red Sox. While it's a bad way to lose, it has the upside of unabashedly dashing all hope early. The losing team instantly gets the message they are losers.

The Re-Trounce delays this instant message. At first, it looks identical to the Trounce. The Yankees cream the Red Sox early on. Hope for salvaging the game seems squashed. Then, in the late innings, the Red Sox mount a miraculous rally. They come within a run of their opponents. Suddenly, hope reignites as momentum shifts and victory seems possible. But as quickly as it's sparked, the winning team snuffs it out. In a final show of force, they stomp out the losing team's hope like a discarded cigarette butt. Hope is crushed not once, but twice.

Last night, Boston suffered a Re-Trounce in New York. The Yankees took an early eight-run lead. The Red Sox mustered a late seven-run comeback only to have New York shut the door with two more runs in the bottom of the eighth. With any luck and some great pitching from Pedro, Boston can bounce back from the Re-Trounce and win Game 2 to tie up the series.