Is this guy (and Jon Lester) for real?

I've been to a handful of games already this year, and each time I'm more and more amazed with some of the "fans" out there. Take the guy above for example. My brother and I were literally running down the street to snap a photo of this clown. An unnecessarily tight outfit, pink hat, "dominator" T-shirt....turns out his was foreign, and had "Cricket Rules" on the front of his shirt...which somehow makes total sense.

From that Euro assclown constantly standing up in the bleachers, to Jon Lester getting lit up, it was a tough day at the park. Here are a few of the takeaways my brother and I discussed during and after the game.....

- Rocco Baldelli and Julio Lugo, both in limited time, now have more homeruns than David Ortiz. If you would have told me that three months ago I probably would have either laughed you out of the room, or attempted dropkick you like a Yankee fan...(not sure if you've seen the youtube video of the Yankee fan launching himself down 5 stairs to dropkick another Yankee fan, if not, you really missed out, it was my intention to link to it, but it has since been removed from youtube).

-How are the Red Sox even above five hundred with this pitching staff? Forget Dice-K being hurt, the biggest concern has to be the fact that Tim Wakefield and Brad Penny are far and away out pitching our "double aces" of Beckett and Lester (Wake is our only starting with a sub 5 ERA....that's Yankee-like terrible).

- ITM has said it before, but it's officially confirmed. Evan Longoria is a stud. He's the best young player in baseball, hands down. It feels like he's hit 35 home runs against us already, I nearly expect it every time he comes up. Add his bat to the gold glove caliber third base he plays and you can see why Peter Gammons has called him the best third basemen in the game. Gammons also thinks Longo has the capability to go down as one of the best third basemen ever....and don't forget, it's a trick question, Gammons is god.

-Tampa's lineup is more than solid...in fact, we decided we would take their 2-3-4-5 hitters over ours...which is impressive when you're talking about to two insanely-crazed Sox fans. Anyone else wonder how the Rays are beating the balls out of the Sox and Yanks, but losing to terrible teams (see Baltimore)?

-So far this season, we couldn't have been more wrong about this team's strengths....which we decided is not good for the long haul.

-Why is Julio Lugo our starting shortstop again? and can we can our hands on Jason Bartlett?

-All that and we didn't see one fight....perhaps a sign of the times at friendly Fenway, or because most people starting filing out of the stadium after the Sox went down 78-2 in the 6th.

Overall it was a very disappointing game....throw in the classic Fenway obstructed view seat (which my ticket did not disclose when I purchased it), and you can see why we may have had a few too many beverages.

Sox Lose Again, Globe Officially Jinxes Our Hopes

I was sitting at my desk yesterday, thinking about the upcoming two series against the Athletics and Orioles and thought to myself "we'll turn it around and go 5-2".... We'll I'm glad I didn't share this prediction with anyone. While a 5-2 trip is still possible, the Red Sox don't look like they could be the Pirates right now.

Last night, Jon Lester was far from the "stopper" we all came to know and expect last year. He struggled through 6 innings in an eventual 8-2 loss to Oakland. The lefty was leaving pitches high and catching too much of the plate....which is a formula that yields taters. Although, I guess it could be worse, we could be dealing with Chien-Ming Wang. I mean Christ (it's after Easter/Lent, I can say that), our old buddy Nomar even took Lester deep....and then welcomed the idea of someday returning to Boston (if he doesn't retire)....come on Nomar, you and I both know that Mia would let you step foot in Boston again. Youk was again the lone offensive bright spot for the Sox, hitting a solo shot and adding a double, but it's a team game and he can't win by himself. The Sox are now 2-5, their worst start since 1996, and it's been much of the same over the first 7 games; inconsistent pitching and a flat lineup (save for Youk) that seems to max out at 3 runs a game (currently averaging just over that).

To make matters worse, the Globe officially jinxed all of Boston sports for 2009. Why would they do that? Who decided this was a good idea to run this article??? Talk about bad luck, thanks Globe, with articles like that maybe going out of business is best for Boston sports.

Forgive me if this post is overly pessimistic, grad school is pissing me off lately, and the Sox are not helping.