Hardball Heaven

Leo Mazzone woke up this morning with a wicked bad headache. His young Orioles pitching staff - led by the talented/erratic Daniel Cabrera - walked 14 Red Sox batters last night as the Sox won a defensive battle, 14-8. Mazzone, of course, was the highly regarded pitching coach in Atlanta for years, and decided to take a little more money to go work for his pal, new Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo. He may be re-thinking that decision based on last night's sorry performance.

All eyes in Boston were on Matt Clement, to see if the 'guy who stayed instead of Bronson' could make us all forget his terrible second-half last season. Clement wasn't quite right after getting hit with a scary line drive in Tampa, but he put together a nice spring and he pitched well last night, albeit more relaxed thanks to his wild counterpart. Clement was staked to a 4-0 lead in the first, which swelled to 10-0 by the end of the fifth. Still, he looked sharp. Manny and Youk banged out three hits each, and Trot hit his second homer of the season, a two-run smash in the 4th. Lowlight was Rudy Seanez' brutal performance, which made us harken back to the glory days of Blaine Neal. He might as well have been putting the ball on a tee. Line drives for everyone! Foulkie actually came on to stop the bleeding in the 9th.

Very strange to see old friend/pinata Kevin Millar in the Orioles' black and orange. Kev supposedly had a nice pre-game meeting with Manny and Ortiz, and was seen frequently on the bench laughing and joking around with his new mates. (Boston Dirt Dogs photo illustration)

In other news, the Yankees' early-season tailspin continues, as they went down to the Angels 4-1 last night out on the Left Coast. They have a tough schedule to start the year, so it would be nice to see the Sox put some distance on them early. How many years have we seen Tito or Grady or whoever take it easy in April, and then see the team finish 4 games behind NY in October? Every game counts, baby, and it's awfully nice to see Tito taking this to heart.

Schilling vs. Chen today at 4:35 p.m., weather permitting. The rain is coming down in Baltimore according to the Hardball Heaven Doppler System.