Sports Redux: We Play Baltimore Again On 9/8

So let's just hope the Sox aren't 12 games out by then. The Sox' woeful recent history in Tropicana Field continued last night, as the Rays jumped out to a lead and held on for a 6-4 victory and a 2-game sweep.

The Sox can take some tiny amount of comfort that Evan Longoria (0-for-3) was finally silenced, but there's enough around him in the lineup to get the job done. Brad Penny was victimized by three home runs (Carlos Pena, Carl Crawford, Pat Burrell), and Jason Bartlett tagged one off Manny Delcarmen for good measure. The Sox got solo homers from Jason Bay and Victor Martinez, but other than that, Tampa starter David Price didn't have a lot of trouble keeping out of trouble.

With Penny having a tough start last night, and John Smoltz being sent out on a wave of five million prayers from Sox fans against NY tonight, Tony Massarotti speaks for all of us who are concerned about what suddenly happened to this vaunted pitching staff. It's probably for the best that they didn't go too hard after Roy Halladay, though, since the Onion has just informed us that he doesn't exist.

ESPN takes a look at the coming Yankee series, admitting that the Sox are 8-0 head-to-head this year, but noting that the Yankees are playing much better right now. New York is fired up, as you'd expect. Steve Buckley points out that the Bronx will be ready for Ortiz, as you'd expect.