Drugstore

Game 5 - Red Sox

Rangers 8, Red Sox 4
Record: 2-3

Found a new side benefit of combining wine and Tylenol Cold & Flu - turns out their interaction causes fairly intense drowsiness, which worked out great last night, as I passed out just in time to miss Sammy Sosa going yard to close the book on an uninspired performance by every facet of the Sox roster.

Mediocre starting pitching - check. Julian Tavarez did very little cockle-warming in his nasty, brutish, and short 4 innings of work. It took him 87 pitches to struggle through those frames, a result of the ne'er good mix of inability to throw strikes and a prediliction for leaving breaking pitches up in the strike zone.

Indifferent defense - yup. J.D. Drew's ole effort on a sharply hit single in the bottom of the 3rd turned Michael Young's single into a Little League homer, as Young circled the bases after Drew whiffed. The Sox' new rightfielder compounded his mistake by airmailing 2 cutoff men, which allowed Young to avoid being cut down at the plate. Instead of having runners on 1st and 3rd and an 0-2 deficit, the Rangers tied the game on the play. Lucky for Drew that didn't happen during his first week at Fenway - the hatahs are locked and loaded, stoked by Boston's moronic talk radio culture.

Lousy relief pitching - you betcha. J.C Romero gave up the aforementioned bomb to the aged Sosa, part of a 5-batter, 5-hit, 3-run effort for the lefthander.

Inconsistent offense - bingo. The Sox did manage 4 runs - matching their second highest total over the season's first week - but came up wanting in way too many circumstances. Shortly before the magic medicine claimed me, David Ortiz left the bases loaded - robbed a little bit by a nice play from Rangers' starter Kevin Millwood. Manny ran the Sox out of more potential runs in the top of the first, getting thrown out trying to go first to third on Drew's 2-out single to left. All told, the Sox reached base 16 times on 11 hits and 5 walks - 4 runs in that scenario is fairly inefficient.

The loss was made the more grumble-inducing after the Orioles (hey - the season's first complaint about the Birds. Just like the salmon of Capitstrano, another harbinger of Spring) gacked up a 7-2 lead in the Bronx, with Alex Rodriguez' walk-off grand slam closing the deal. That's just what the AL East needs, A-Rod building some confidence. Hey - thanks, Chris Ray.

Curt Schilling goes for redemption on national television tonight. The Schilling of old tosses a dominant performance against the Rangers. The question of whether we get that guy or the old Schilling has quickly become one of the season's central and most pressing ones.