You hear it all the time, "That one landed on the Mass. Pike." This time it was real close to being true. Manny's towering shot landed 10-15 feet away. You know that it is huge when it is still going up when it passes the Coke bottles, which are 120-feet tall. Wow!

It's too bad that Manny wasn't healthy enough to stay in the game. The Boston Herald reports Manny left squad with quad injury. His thigh muscle was bothering him - not good.

Without Ramirez, Millar and Mueller in the lineup, Boston was in desperate need of some offense in the later innings. With all due respect, Jay Payton, David McCarty and Ramon Vasquez aren't true replacements. It doesn't look like Mueller will return tonight either. According to Projo.com his sinuses are acting up. Ahh, spring.

Even so the Sox should not have let the lead slip away. Boston really needed that win. Bronson Arroyo, although his pitch-count was high, only allowed the one-run in seven innings. He was almost a match for Toronto's Roy Halladay.

Masslive.com blames the bullpen. How could you not? Alan Embree's flat fast ball proved to be the difference. He allowed two runs in his brief appearance.

And, I'll say it once again, "Do not put Keith Foulke in a tie game!" It seems that everytime management makes this move it ends up hurting the Sox.

Now the Sox will face the league-leading Orioles tonight. Even though Baltimore leads the East, The Baltimore Sun's John Eisenberg, writes about the poor attendence in the Yards so far.
it wil be different when the World Champs come to town.

The game should be interesting regardless of who's in the stands. The defenses must be on their toes. Both Bruce Chen and David Wells like to throw strike. Each has only allowed one walk so far this year. This will keep the fielders quite busy.

So although according to my brother, defense is only 5% of the game, tonight's fielding will be the difference. According to the Baltimore Sun, the Orioles' manager, Lee Mazzilli, decided to experiment in last night's game. I doubt that will be the case this evening.

One more note: Tim Wakefield and the Sox have agreed to an extension, so says MLB.com. That's the good news. More good news? It's for cheap money - only $4-million-a-year. The bad? It's for only one year.

Reader comments: We saw some great defensive effort on the part of the Sox last year down the stretch. But how much does defense impact a game?

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