Weird game. We get a run off El Rey in the first. There's a play where Napoli hits one down the left field line with Papi on first. The one and only thing the viewer cares about is where Papi is on the basepaths so we can see if he's got a shot at scoring. But NESN cuts to a shot of the air between first and second, then finally cuts to Napoli. The replay is of the ball rolling down the line and the fielder retrieving it. So we never saw Papi. On top of it being a key thing to see, it's also a great visual, Ortiz lumbering around. Oh well. He didn't score.

Lackey gives the run right back, and when we score again, he gives that run right back. Only this time, the inning continues. After a 13-pitch at bat to Ackley, he gets what could be an inning-ending double play ball, only he forgets to cover first. Or he can't because of some injury he's made up. Either way, he says "motherfucker," which is what all the other players should be saying about the pitcher who failed to cover first base. He goes on to give up a wild pitch, a walk, a single, and a triple, and you could turn your sets off there, folks. 7-2 Seattle, eventually going to 12-3. Ungood baseball player Stephen Drew fittingly ends the game by Beltranning strike three right over the plate, dropping his average to .143. He somehow has managed to get his batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage all under .200. Not one hitter currently on the roster can say he's worse than Drew in any of those categories. If you include last postseason, he has 12 hits in his last 96 at bats.

Yanks lost to the Jays, so at least those a-holes fall 2.5 back instead of closing in on first place, which is not what a shitty team should be doing. My plan remains: the Jays are toast, the Yanks are a horrible team with about the same X W-L as ours, the Rays are too far gone, and I don't know what the hell the O's are doing. So I say we catch the Yanks first, then both we and the O's fly by Toronto, and the two of us go down to the wire before we pull away, capping off a fiery second half. But losing by 9 tonight doesn't represent my plan getting off to a good start.

Meanwhile, I told you about a family picture with old baseball stuff in the background. I'm still working on the research, will have a post up about it soon.