Game 2: You Win Some...

Final Score:

Boston Red Sox 4, Texas Rangers 10

The physics don't always work in your favor...

A mixed bag tonight, as the knuckleball didn’t dance well enough to fool the Texas hitters and Boston hitting only got purchase off the Rangers’ rather unreliable relief corps. Not that the Boston bullpen did much better; DiNardo and Riske combined to give up four runs over about four innings and help push the game further out of reach. The entire session was a demonstration of how bad things can be when the combinations don’t come together.

Remember how frightening it was to watch Jason Varitek catch Tim Wakefield during the 2004 ALCS, when Tito wouldn’t take Varitek out because he needed his bat, he wouldn’t take Wake out because there was no one left to pitch and it felt like the entire series would end on a pass ball? Watching Josh Bard catch Wake conjures up the exact same feelings. The good news? This was the second game of the season. The bad news? This was the second game of the season. Three pass balls to Bard’s credit tonight didn’t help Wakefield’s rhythm, I’m sure.

Manny somehow managed to see 10,000 pitches tonight and still strike out 4 times. The man is beyond mystifying. On the flip side of things, Ortiz has touched based six out of ten times already and Coco Crisp is hitting .444 with four runs and a stolen base.

I forgot about how MLB.com insists on alternating TV broadcasts on MLB.tv during a series. It’s not like these stations aren’t broadcasting anyway and somehow Gameday Audio has the option to pick your channel…how come they can redesign the MLB.tv player (which I like, by the way) and not give you the option of choosing NESN every single time if you wanted to? I mean, this Texas station is so ghetto they’re using the radio feed for the audio and has no onscreen graphics or replays whatsoever. I also just noticed the cameras focus on a reporter with a mic with the logo of TV station on it in the stands. Seems like us video subscribers are getting the short end of the stick on all counts.

Tomorrow night, Boy Wonder Josh Beckett attempts to pull off the first rubber game win of the season against Kameron Loe. Let’s see the magic, boys…GO SOX!!!