Game 2: Let's Never Do That Again

Boston Red Sox - 1; Oakland Athletics - 5

Ok, I'm serious. Baseball at 6am sucks. Especially when you worked until midnight the night before and have to be BACK at work at 10 AM. Trying to squeeze a 3+ hour ball game in between those time frames (especially after an up all night Opening Day-a-thon), is an exercise in masochism. It took THREE Red Bulls to get me through my shortened 8 hour shift and I feel like I'm in a fog. So, Mr Selig, you can take your international goodwill and shove it - no more games in Japan!

As for the last of the Japan Series, well we lost. I know it's only one of, hopefully, 60-70 losses to come, but it still leaves me feeling bitter. I was kinda hoping to hit the ground running this year and, to make it worse, we get to sit with the taste of this loss in our mouth for the next five days, before there's meaningful baseball again. ANOTHER drawback of this crappy schedule. Honestly, I think I would have rather lost Opening Day and won this game.

The Bad: Jon Lester. That pretty much says it all. 4 Earned Runs over 4 innings with a healthy serving of walks and 85 pitches? Not making us feel better about the aborted Santana trade, kid. I KNOW its only one start. I KNOW its early. However, the problems in this game look exactly like the problems Lester has had in the past - only now he's healthy (still good!). I'm hoping that Theo and Farrell (who raved about Lester in the off-season) haven't made a big mistake here and that Lester's ceiling is that of a 4th or 5th starter.

Secondary Bad: The Offense. I really don't want to have to go through this whole men left on base nightmare again. Didn't we have enough of that last year?

The Good: Manny Ramirez. Holy Cow. Remember all that talk of a Monster Year going around in the winter? Well so far, and it is early, Manny is tearing it up. 2-5 last night with 4 RBIs including the game winner, and a solo shot for the only Sox run of the game tonight? Bodes well indeed.

Secondary Good: Ummm... For the second day in a row, Lugo did not suck at the plate? Yeah, I'll take that.