Sports Redux: Camden North Edition

Bostonist was walking past the hustle and bustle of Fenway Park on Friday afternoon when we finally identified that nagging feeling that had been with us ever since the Park Street station. We had seen more Baltimore Orioles jerseys, hats and T-shirts in an hour than we saw all day when we traveled to Camden Yards last season!

What was going on? Everyone knows that the orange-accented Baltimore ballpark is known fondly in Red Sox circles as Fenway South and that Baltimore games are supposed to be chances for the Sox to play well and everyone to laugh with Cowboy Up himself, Kevin Millar.

And yet Friday was different. The Red Sox, returning to Fenway for a 10-game home stand, fell to Baltimore on Friday night, 6-3. With the O's dominating throughout and those surprising flashes of orange, it almost seems that Baltimore took over Fenway for a night - made it Camden North.

Where to begin? At the number 13. Boston left 13 runners on base over the course of the night, thrice ending innings with the bases loaded. Sometimes the stranded baserunners were the result of stellar fielding (Miguel Tejada had two crazy grabs at shortstop, including a seventh-inning beauty that robbed J.D. Drew of a hit), sometimes those runners just had to watch their teammates miss in their opportunity to make something happen.

It wasn't much prettier on the defensive side. Julian Tavarez gave up five runs in five innings, including the early O's lead that left Boston struggling to catch up throughout the rest of the game. Wily Mo Pena didn't make it any easier, with a couple of misread plays in right field, one of which was a downright ugly missed catch. Runs scored, Pena looked foolish, Red Sox fans cringed.

But today is another day and we're hoping that renegade crews weren't busily affixing the Orioles logo to the brick along Yawkey Way last night. The Sox - still number one in the AL East, thank you! - will try to give the hometown fans something they can cheer for at 1:05, when Schilling goes up against Steve Traschel.

-- Something seemed amiss with Roy Halladay on Thursday. Toronto's ace, usually a nightmare for the Red Sox, crumbled as the Sox rolled its way into a 8-0 win. On Friday, baseball fans learned that Halladay will be out 4-6 weeks after a case of acute appendicitis. The Blue Jays pitcher showed up at the Rodgers Center looking pale on Friday afternoon, by Friday night, Blue Jays fans knew that they were even more screwed than they thought they were. The good news? The Jays won last night, snapping that losing streak with a 5-1 win over Tampa Bay.

-- The idea of an angry David Ortiz is scary. It comes hand-in-hand with ugly images of sportswriters snapped in two, laptops thrown across the Mass Pike...which is why it's fitting that Ortiz isn't happy with the folks over at the Boston Herald and the way the Barry Bonds/steroid interview he gave with scribe Michael Silverman was handled.

It's not Silverman that Ortiz has issues with, or the articles that resulted from the interview. It's the Herald copy editor/paginator that should think twice about parking his or her car anywhere near Fenway in the near future - Papi didn't appreciate the headline "Papi Unwitting 'Roid User?" that ran over a sidebar discussing the process of steroid self-education.

It seems that everyone in the press box will suffer as a result, according to the Globe story.

"For now, I'm going to be very limited in my responses," Ortiz said. "Whenever anyone had a question before, about me, about my teammates, about the game, I tried to help. When they had a question, I always had an answer. Now I won't."

-- Patriots rookie Brandon Merriweather was formally introduced at Gillette Stadium on Friday, where Robert Kraft fell in love with the young fellow's style and the player said he's looking forward to making people forget about his troubled past learning the Pats playbook and integrating himself into the team.

-- The soccer men of the New England Revolution are feeling good, and not just because they're taking in some SoCal sunshine today in preparation of their 10 p.m. EST game against the Los Angeles Galaxy. The Revs are benefiting from roster consistency that could benefit New England soccer fans immensely, according to the Herald.

-- Your quick guide to playoff action: How 'bout those Warriors?!? Golden State was led by Baron Davis' 32 point to beat Utah 125-105 and cut the second-round Jazz series lead to 2-1. On the ice, Detroit edged out a 2-1 victory over the Ducks, and Ottawa and Buffalo will take the ice tonight.

Photo of two guys unlikely to have candid interviews with the media in the near future from flickr user redperm