Sayonara

The Red Sox lost to Oakland 5-1 this morning in the last game in Tokyo. As Manny took strike three in the top of the 8th I knew this one was not going to end well. My wife said, "This is going to put you in a bad mood isn't it?" She was right, Red Sox loses usually do put me in a bad mood but I usually get over it by the time the lineups are announced for the next game. One of the great things about baseball is you do not have to live with a loss very long because another game is at most two days away. This loss is going to hurt more thanks to Bud's asinine idea of opening the season in Japan. Now we have to live with all of the negatives until the Sox take the field on April 1st. We have to deal with the things we have been thinking but have been afraid to admit; the Sox may not be as good as we think they are. The starting pitching had been bad all spring but those games did not count. Now as the rubber meets the road the rotation has stumbled out of the gate. While other teams get to enjoy a regular opening day on Monday we will have to continue to reflect on Lester or Dice-K's first outing. To put things in perspective it is March 26 and splitting a series on the road is never bad but it is going to be a long six days until we hear "play ball!" in Oakland.