The Red Sox lost a poorly-played season opener to the Orioles in Baltimore last night. Migeul Tejada, Javey Lopez and Rafael Palmeiro all played well in their Baltimore debuts (for Palmeiro, it is a redebut of sorts). Pedro Martinez wasn’t sharp in the second inning, and although he managed to escape major trouble, it was enough to do Boston in. What hurt more were all the scoring opportunities the Red Sox wasted. Considering how good their offense is, that is not likely to happen often.

I sat in for Larry Mahnken this morning in the weekly column he writes with Ben Jacobs about the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry over at The Hardball Times. Ben put it well when he said the loss was more annoying than anything else. Ed Cossette isn’t too bothered either.

I didn’t watch all of the game, but I did enjoy seeing hairy Johnny Damon. He’s really too much, this guy. Talk about a guy who is going above and beyond to cultivate an image as the anti-Yankee; it’s good to see that the spirit of Bill Lee is still alive and well in Boston. My favorite play of the game came when Miguel Tejada flew out to deep center to end the second inning. Damon, running towards the track, recorded the out, and then jumped at the fence like he was taking a lay up, and dropped the ball in a fan’s lap.