Devil Rays sweep Red Sox

First baseball post of the season, still owing to my simmering anger at the ridiculous name-change initiated by the otherwise admirable Sternberg ownership and management.

The devil ray stays on one sleeve of the new uniform as the lone relic of the team's real name.

But enough about that. As stupid as the Sun Ray aspect of the team is, sweeping the Red Sox is sweet. I don't hate the Sox like the Yankees, but Red Sox fan down here is even worse than Yankee fan. It's wonderful to send them home with three straight disappointments.

James Shields pitched a terrific game, giving up just two hits in 9 innings of work to beat Boston hurler Josh Beckett. The final was 3-0.

The really encouraging thing about the team is that they haven't started to hit yet. It remains to be seen if this lineup will produce runs like last year's (Delmon Young's bat will be missed, I think), but the pitching has really come together thus far. The team is over .500 with many key hitters hovering around the Mendoza line.

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