Last night sucked. There, I said it. It especially sucked for me mainly because I stayed up and watched the all 13 painful innings. Normally on a Friday night, the week has taken its toll on me and I’m sound asleep on the couch by 8pm. Not that I didn’t snooze here and there during this game, but I was there in the end. Needless to say, I wish I had just stayed asleep. I’ve decided that each loss I document, will now be graced with a new pie chart.

Sometimes “cheese” causes “gas”… just sayin’.

I almost want to recap last night’s game caveman-style. You know, with grunts. Because I felt like I did a lot of grunting last night. The Red Sox score a run, the Orioles score a run. *grunt* The Red Sox score two runs, the O’s score two runs. *grunt-grunt* The Red Sox score another run… well, you get the picture. In the end, the O’s scored more runs *grunt* and won 6-4 in 13 innings. *gruuuuuuunt*

Offense…
What can I say? When only one or two guys are hitting the ball, it’s hard to score runs. Adrian Gonzalez, who had a pretty tough night in the third game of the A’s series, seemed to come alive when everyone else was napping. He went 3 for 6 but had no runs batted in. Weird. Dustin Pedroia was the only other player to have more than one hit going 2 for 5. David Ortiz, the star of my last pie chart, was a major disappointment last night. He had some good swings, but ultimately took a big 0-fer and left six men on base.

When is it ok for a 41-year-old woman to throw herself on the floor and engage in an epic toddler-type tantrum? Because I’m close. Oh, so very close.

Pitching…
Lester was again, just ok. I’m tired of ok. I want awesome. He lasted just six innings and gave up three earned runs on five hits. He walked three and struck out only two. Disappointing. Vicente Padilla started the 7th and gave up the tying run. Rich Hill and Matt Albers managed to keep the O’s scoreless through the 9th.

Alfredo Aceves struck out six of the seven batters he faced in the 10th and 11th. He had some pretty impressive stuff going on. His movement on his pitches had the O’s batters flailing at almost everything they swung at. But in the 12th, he was lifted for Franklin Morales who gave up the winning runs in the 13th and ultimately took the loss. Oy…

So now, the Red Sox are three games below .500 and seven games behind the first place Tampa Bay Rays who, by the way, have won six straight. And that’s without Evan Longoria. I’m not sure what this Sox team can do to turn things around — I guess if I did know, they’d offer to pay me boatloads of money to come work for them. I’m just stumped. And I think Bobby V. is too.

Here’s a link to the box (if you want your eyes to bleed), courtesy of the Red Sox. Aaron Cook, who was called up from Pawtucket earlier this week, will get his first start for the Sox today, taking Josh Beckett’s scheduled start. Beckett is expected to miss just one start due to a sore lat muscle. First pitch is at 1:10pm.

If you happen to be an O’s fan, you should check out the recap by our sister site, Charm City Yakyuu. It might be a little happier-sounding than mine.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!