Japanese Walker Torture

Red Sox-Yankee games have become an ordeal not only for the players but for the fans, individual stages akin to the Tour de France. Tonight's game is in the 6th inning as we approach almost three hours of game time.

Both Daisuke Matsuzaka and Yankee pitchers need a dog and a cane to find the strike zone. Matsuzaka walked six in his five innings. And David Aardsma has come on to walk two of the first three hitters he faced. Aardsma escaped further trouble by the skin of his teeth.

For the season, the Sox came in with a K/BB ratio well under two. As I've written before, K/BB ratio strongly correlates inversely to run prevention (as measured by E.R.A.).

If the Sox pitchers can't throw strikes, this is going to be a very long season. To make matters worse, the bullpen has neither Okajima nor Papelbon tonight.

The Yankees excavated the mythical Sox jersey from their new playground, worried about a new curse. They have enough of a curse to overcome, placed upon them prior to the Diamondbacks World series by the family of a fired Yankee employee.

Yankee reserve shortstop Alberto Gonzalez has looked terrific defensively and adequate offensively. He looks to be far superior to Derek Jeter in the field, although I'm sure that Jeter isn't sweating out his job.

We've heard a thousand times tonight how Derek Jeter isn't playing, but the Sox are missing both Mike Lowell and David Ortiz has a mental health day today.

For the season, the Sox are 7th in OPS and 9th in runs scored in the AL, although admittedly it's very early and nobody expects David Ortiz to be below the Dean Chance line, far below the Mendoza line.

Unfortunately for the working stiffs (including me), bedtime rapidly approaches, while the game is likely to last another couple of hours.