Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Game 4 - Red Sox

Red Sox 14, Devil Rays 5
Record: 3-1

Three days ago seems like such a distant memory, with the Sox staring an 0-2 record in the face as Damian Jackson wound up to throw the ball to the plate in the 12th inning of the second game of the season. Doug Mirabelli held on, and the Sox haven't looked back. Another strong performance at the plate yesterday afternoon gives the Sox 34 runs in the season's first four games. I think 8.5 runs a game will probably suffice. Jason Varitek and Kevin Millar look like MVP candidates, and Casey Fossum looked strong enough to give some hope, striking out 7 in 5 innings of work, while being victimized by some bad luck, seeing-eye dribblers and infield hits.

The Sox come to Baltimore for the weekend, and I'll be attending Sunday's game at Camden Yards. The Birds had the lowest attendance in the history of the Yards yesterday - just a really depressing state of affairs. Baltimore used to be such a proud franchise, and the hubris of one man, Peter Angelos, has turned years of history and exemplary organization into a laughingstock. It has been written, and not in jest, that Angelos is intentionally fielding a substandard product in order to dampen attendance so he can argue that baseball in Washington would cripple his franchise. B.J. Surhoff is the starting leftfielder and number 3 hitter on the Orioles. That's a pretty damning argument. As a Red Sox fan, the situation is great, because the Sox play the woeful O's (Woe's?) 19 times this season. As a baseball fan, and a (sort of) Washingtonian, it sucks and it stinks and it sucks.

Opening Day is just a bad dream now. 3-1 with three to play against Baltimore is a fairly good place to be. John Burkett tonight, televised live to my living room. My wife should start drinking now.