Ah yes, the Sunday lineup. A chance for relative nobodies to become temporary somebodies. Subs as starters, utilities as uberplayers, callups alongside captains. We all remember the likes of McKay Christensen and Mark L. Johnson stepping in to deliver a reasonable substitute for the games that went down the other six days of the week, and at some point we all learned to equate those Sunday outings with roughly two-thirds of a normal game.

So when you see Wilson Betemit and Corky Miller holding down the fort, you almost reflexively brace for just a little less than what the team usually delivers. Perhaps they’ll strand a ton of runners or miss a golden opportunity to put themselves on the board, maybe drop a throw or two for good measure. And maybe they do, and maybe you just kind of shrug it off. “Whatever dude, it’s the Sunday team. Don’t sweat it.”

And it being a Sunday, they certainly delivered the goods: a pair of errors, seven(!) stranded in scoring position, enemy baserunners advancing at will and three-run homers that unfortunately never came. Which is, of course, all nothing to get worked up over in and of itself. But what makes it frustrating is that this is no different than what happens with the regular lineup. It’s just one game, except it’s actually pretty much every game.

And they were shown up by an unknown pitcher to boot. How embarrassing.

Heading into Kansas City to square off against those so-called division rival Royals, the Sox have the unfortunate timing to face Zack Greinke, the guy we all might know better as the current best pitcher in baseball. They go in without two, possibly three of their most vital bats while needing those home runs more and more. And Greinke, sadly, hasn’t allowed one of those since September 2, 2008. Perhaps the Sox will be the ones to end that reign of terror; perhaps, and more probably, they will just be another nine guys Wilson Betemit leaves standing on second.