VERY HARD to get excited about going to the game today. VERY HARD. I'll start first by saying that the weather is going to be bad this weekend, and it should have been in the 90's for the start of the game (though the boxscore says gametime was 85 degrees). It was going to be miserable, so we made reservations for the Stadium Club Bar, on the glass for great views. Both days, since tomorrow would be even hotter.
Well... let's talk about the other reason(s) why making the pilgrimage to the park is difficult. We're 37-47 coming into today - 10 games under .500 - a stark difference from the World Series year, or even being in contention last year. In 4th place in the division, 13 games behind the leader.
To add insult to injury, the team played two games yesterday, the first being a makeup from a freeze-out in early April. Talking about frozen... the score of the first game yesterday? 20-14. You didn't read that wrong - it was 2 runs shy of tying the American League record for Total Runs in a Game at 36. Normally, 14 runs is enough to kill your opponent - not yesterday. It got out of hand when starting pitcher Jon Garland only made it through 3 1/3 innings throwing 90 pitches to 25 batters, giving up 11 earned runs (12 total), 2 homeruns, 3 walks and not a single strikeout. Oh, the team not only gave up 20 runs but 21 hits, 8 walks (ooooo! 1 strikeout!) and 5 errors. And we still scored 14 runs, and had the bases loaded in the 9th.
So, you would think: put that behind you the second game will be different. We lose the second game 12-0. NO RUNS... 5 hits.
Between two games, we lost 32-14.
And you wonder why we didn't want to go to the game today? The Stadium Club was warm, and there was no air circulation against the glass where we were... we just kept drinking water, having the server bring us glasses of ice. During the course of the game I went downstairs and took a quick dash through the Rain Room to get wet and cool off. I noticed, however, when I was downstairs that it really didn't feel all that bad... I mean, it was hot, but there was a slight breeze... and just having the air move made it feel better...
Speaking of feeling better, the Sox WON the game 3-1. Mark Buehrle had a solid outing. We won, but it felt bittersweet as Buehrle has been the subject of MANY rumors about his contract negotiotions... and with him being the pitching star of the team, and the team doing so poorly, It would be hard to not deal him to get something back to put this tam back together.
But we WON... today.
(Boxscore)
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