Red Sox Vs Rays: Take A Deep Breath and Remember

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Let's focus on the positive. The world is not ending. It was game two of a 162 game season. If the Sox lose 60 more times this season it will have been a great year. There was one bad inning from Jon Lester, and Little Jeddy (Jed Lowrie, not going to grow up until I see some clutchness) couldn't come up with the key hit. But we get to do it all again today,  at 1:35 p.m.

We will make it.

A tender moment of teaching brought to us by Jason Varitek.

It was really a story of two innings. The Rays got the big hit from Haverhill native (I wonder how much longer the town goes before asking people not to mention he's from there when he beats the Sox) Carlos Pena, to turn a 3-1 nailbiter into a 5-1 beating in the top of the fifth. The runs before that all came on bloopers, seeing eye balls, an uncharacteristic error from Youk (who needs to get the feel of he beard back after the Youk-Fu debacle) and one miscommunication (early season issue) on a safety squeeze.

Lester started out really good, Dropping the curve in for strikes and then getting them to swing late on the heat, but his cutter isn't at the point this season yet where he can throw it to guys who know it's coming and have them miss. Especially when the cutter is over the heart of the plate.

Be disgusted with yourself. Good.

On the flip side, the Red Sox eighth was looking like it could be a monster inning. Once Ortiz and Youk' singled (and after Rocco Baldelli, the local kid making his first start at Fenway against his old mates failed to get the PRODUCTIVE OUT to move the runners along), that Bay guy (your 2009 AL MVP, Jason Bay) doubled to bring home the big man.

With guys at second and third with two out, Lowell took a Roger Dorn (Major League 2) for the team to load them up for Little Jeddy. While it was a shrewd move for Maddon to bring in the righty, Grant "Nuttier than Elephant Turds" Balfour, and force Lowrie to bat from the left side, that should not stop the kid from getting the big hit. It's hits like those (by that I mean the one you didn't get last night, Rook) that will help you keep Theo's mistake out of the lineup once he gets back from knee surgery.

Even before that it wasn't looking good. Evan Longoria-Parker took Takashi Saito deep on his third pitch in a Sox uniform (which I hope mirrors Oki's '07, when he gave up a shot to the first guy he faced and then nobody scored on him for three months), and the Rays added one in the ninth to make it a nice round five run beating. Shit.

You can even get an app to pretend that this guy is calling you to get you out of work.

Today is the first of 10 chances for you to make up a conference call, STD exam, or any other reason that real people use to watch the game during the work day. Remember, as the first of 10 times you'll have to do this over the next six months, you don't want to blow your load by using the good stuff right away. Try something new, maybe your kid has a kindergarten play at approximately 1:35 p.m., or you need to run to the distribution center to check on an order and the on-line system isn't working (make sure to screw up the system somehow before you try it).

Either way, I'll be in the GOMB skybox with StartMattCassel (atShortstop) today for the game. The Wiggler takes the mound vs Matt "I've still got that nasty Devil Rays taste in my mouth and I cant spit it out" Garza (seriously, watch him today, he looks like he just gave the umpire a blow job and is trying to spit out the sin). It'll be sixty and sunny and sobriety is not on the menu. Good Luck.

Go Sox.

Done.

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