To go nowhere it's all about run prevention

It hasn't taken long to figure out why nobody was excited about the 2010 Red Sox season: by not adding a bit bat in the middle of the lineup (to replace Jason Bay), it was clear that this flawed team from last season would only take a step back.

The Sox brass talked all about run prevention which has already backfired as they make errors left and right and on top of that, they can't score any runs making defense rather pointless.

It's hard to remember a much more depressing result in April but yesterday has to be the front-runner as Tampa Bay won two games in one night at Fenway Park.

First, they wrapped up the suspended game from the night before with a 3-1 win in 12 innings. Pat Burrell hit a two-run homer off Manny Delcarmen in the 12th.

That was bad enough but it came after the laughable sequence of not being able to score one run (to win it in the 11th) with the bases loaded and nobody out. David Ortiz hit a groundball that forced J.D. Drew at the plate before Adrian Beltre grounded into a double play.

Tampa Bay (8-3) won their fifth straight (5-0 on the road) and sent Boston (4-7) to its third straight loss with a 6-5 victory late last night.

With the rain, miserable temperatures and delay from the first game, it was a rare scene at Fenway: empty seats everywhere. The only enjoyment in last night's game was listening to a couple hardy drunks yelling at the Red Sox. Yup, it's come to that already.

The Rays scored four runs in the first off Clay Buchholz. The first was solely Mike Cameron's fault as he dropped a routine fly ball by Carlos Pena. From there, Buchholz was rattled and gave up a three-run double to Burrell.

Marco Scutaro got the Red Sox on the board with a solo homer-his first with Boston-in the fifth inning. After a John Jaso RBI double and Evan Longoria's solo shot, Tampa Bay was up 6-1. James Shields (1-0) was cruising but ran into trouble in the seventh.

Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, the only Boston hitters you can count on at the moment, made it interesting with a pair of two-run homers over the Monster.

Ramon Ramirez finally did something positive, throwing two scoreless innings but Dan Wheeler (eighth) and Rafael Soriano (fourth save, second of the night) didn't allow the tying run from Boston.

Tampa Bay goes for the sweep this afternoon as Matt Garza takes on Jon Lester.