Escape From the Errordome

Sorry. I need another day for Deadwood. But it will be worth it! Ha ha ha, no, I joke. It so won’t be. Anyway, I’ll do the Red Sox stuff today and then tomorrow Deadwood for sure.

Record: 40-28, first place in AL East

A week ago the Sox arrived in Minneapolis for a three game set against the Twins at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. It’s probably best not to have big expectations for a building named after Hubert Humphrey, and indeed, the Metrodome is a hellish place for a baseball game, what with its Hefty bag walls and shag carpeting and migraine-inducing crowd noise. The series was summed up nicely in one swing of the bat by David Ortiz, who launched a screaming 450-foot homerun that instead clunked off a speaker hanging from the rafters and bounced onto the field for a single.



The first game was actually a taut pitcher’s duel between Schilling and Santana that went into extra innings and was blown in spectacular fashion by Julian Tavarez, he of the face (and the arm) only a mother could love. The bullpen explosion continued for the next two nights, and the Sox were swept by the Twins. On to Atlanta for an interleague series with the reeling Braves, who proved to be just what the doctor ordered. Playing in Atlanta offers its own annoyances, not so much with the stadium itself as with the embarrassing and incessant war-whooping, tom-tom drumming and tomahawk chopping. The Braves fans didn’t have much to whoop, drum or chop about, however, as their downward spiral continued and they fell to the Sox in all three games. I particularly enjoyed new Brave Edgar Renteria’s futility in the series, considering he played shortstop like Fred Sanford last year in Boston.



Opening a homestand against the Washington Nationals last night, the Red Sox had a problem: no starting pitcher. With Matt Clement on the disabled list and David Wells apparently in the witness protection program, the team snagged someone named Kyle Snyder off waivers from the Kansas City Royals. Basically, they needed a warm body on the mound, so they went with a guy who was dumped by the worst team in baseball. It’s so crazy it just might work! And it did – the kid did an okay job, giving up three runs in five innings, the offense piled up six runs and the bullpen managed to hold the lead. With the Yankees losing three in a row, the Red Sox now have a two game lead in the American League East.



On a semi-related note, on Friday night I attended a Round Rock Express game. Why would I do such a thing? Well, the Express are the AAA affiliate of the Houston Astros, and on that night Roger Clemens was pitching his final tune-up start before reporting to the major leagues. I happened to see this announced the morning he signed with the Astros and must have been one of the first people to snap up a ticket, because I had a great seat – second row, right behind home plate. Five seats over from Matthew McConaughey, Lance Armstrong and Governor Haircut. (I should mention that the teenage girl sitting in front of me just happened to have some 8x10 glossies of Matty Mac in her possession which, so far as I can tell, she had snapped while sitting behind him at the Rose Bowl in January. I guess restraining orders aren’t what they used to be.) Anyway, the Rocket sputtered in the first inning, giving up three runs, but settled down after that. I left after the fifth inning to beat the traffic because, hey, it was a Round Rock Express game. True, it was Fireworks Friday, but still.