Ding ****, the Sox are done.

Daniel Nava's grand slam against the Phillies. (AP Photo)It's 2006 all over again.

But the difference is that the Red Sox find themselves ridiculously behind the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays.

Now at 8.0 games back in the AL East and 7.0 in the Wild Card (trailing the Rays) it's safe to say it's over.

The 15-13 August record wasn't enough to keep pace of two teams that simply won't quit.

Mathematically, Boston is still in it. But so are the Toronto Blue Jays (69-63). The Baltimore Orioles (who the Red Sox for some reason can't beat to save their lives) are officially out of it with a 49-83 record.

The 2010 season was just a mess right from the beginning. And it's unfortunate.

Of course this is the same season that Clay Buchholz outgrew his shell and is dominating on the mound.

This is the same season that off-season signing Adrian Beltre replaced Jason Bay's missing bat.

And this is the same season that David Ortiz revived himself and was now feared again at the plate.

But this is also the same season that Boston lost Jacoby Ellsbury for pretty much the season, and Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis soon followed.

And to top it all off, for some reason Josh Beckett and John Lackey decided to become two biggest 1-2 pitching combo busts in the league.

The bad clearly outweighed the good, but the 2010 season wasn't all a waste.

Darnell McDonald.
Daniel Nava.
Ryan Kalish.

Nava and Kalish give the 2011 club future hope and excitement. The phrase, 'wait til next year' is of course old and overused news to Red Sox fans, but there are bright sides.

The Rays are going to run into salary and signing issues as they want to lower the current $72 million to around $60 million. This forces them to wave good-bye to either Carlos Pena or Carl Crawford.

The Yankees aren't getting any younger, which means Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter aren't either.

Jeter's numbers have diminished and there's talk about what's going to happen after this season. He's going to have to take a massive pay cut, as he currently makes $22.6 million, ranking him third on the team behind Alex Rodriguez ($33 million) and CC Sabathia ($24.3 million).

So all in all this is the beginning of the end of the 2010 season. No matter what other 'experts' are saying, mentally this team isn't in it and Theo Epstein needs to start prepping for 2011. What he really needs to do is to persuade Beltre to stay.

That'll take a miracle.Like what you see? Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/batterupbruno