Patriot's Day 2012: Red Sox Will Ruin Marathon Monday for Boston

The Boston Red Sox will ruin Patriots' Day for everyone in Boston when they lose to the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday.

The Rays were the team who put the exclamation point on Boston's historic September collapse last season, and it happened because Tampa Bay played hard and put in the effort required to win.

The Red Sox failed to make enough moves in the offseason to correct their problems and because of that, the team will miss the postseason for the third straight season. That would be embarrassing for a team with one of the highest payrolls in Major League Baseball.

After they allowed closer Jonathan Papelbon to leave in the offseason through free agency, the Red Sox went out and traded for Andrew Bailey from the Oakland Athletics.

So the Red Sox lost a closer with great reliability in that he hardly missed any games and acquired an injury-prone player who hasn't been able to stay healthy throughout his career.

Hardly a good swap when you consider that Bailey is now going to miss a few months with another injury, and the Red Sox have no reliable backup option.

Marathon Monday will be an exciting day in the city of Boston, like it always is, but for the first time in years, the Red Sox will be an afterthought.

With the Celtics and Bruins readying for deep playoff runs, the Red Sox have become irrelevant in many fans' minds.