Blech. Just a thoroughly unenjoyable ballgame at Fenway Park, marred by shoddy defensive play, worse pitching, a couple of injuries and considerable bad luck. The Red Sox lost an ugly one last night to the Orioles, 8-4.

On the mound, David Wells never got comfortable, a credit to the Orioles attack as much as it is a knock on Wells himself. In the first inning, the best player in the history of baseball led off with a single, stole second, stole third and then scored on a ground out. In the second, Javy Lopez led off with a 6-pitch walk followed by a first-pitch BJ Surhoff single and a Luis Matos double. After a David Ortiz error a few batters later, the Orioles had plated another 2 runs. David Wells made his costliest mistake of the night on an 0-2 pitch to Surhoff in the 4th, a fastball up in the zone that Surhoff billy-clubbed to deep right field. Wells left the game shortly thereafter having sprained his foot on a chopper just to his right. Acclimating himself just fine to the Boston media scene, Chris Snow couldn’t resist taking a shot at Boomer after Wells quipped last Wednesday night in Baltimore that “this old dog can still field his position.” No word on the severity of Boomer’s injury yet. Blaine Neal came on and did fine in spot relief duty before handing the ball to Matt Mantei, who also injured himself going to back up third base after a Javy Lopez double. One has to wonder if we won’t be seeing Portland relief phenom Cla Meredith any time soon.

The Red Sox offense was by no means bad as they got to Bruce Chen here and there all night and even a number of their outs were awfully loud. Jason Varitek had Boston’s only 2 extra base hits of the evening, a double and a rocket of a home run. Edgar Renteria, however, continues to disappoint. Simply put, Renteria has an awful approach at the plate and his continued propensity to ground into double plays has earned him the nickname RIDP over at Primer (Renteria’d Into Double Play - thanks Mikael). The admittedly snarky nickname is a coping mechanism I suppose and one we all took to but in all seriousness it is hard not to think about what might have been on an evening in which Wells goes down with a foot injury and Renteria drains the hell out of the offensive attack. How would Pedro and Jose Valentin sound about now? Or Pedro and Placido Polanco? Because either one of those combinations probably would have cost right around the same amount as Wells and Renteria. Hindsight I know but I think we were skeptical enough around these parts when Petey left and Renteria signed to raise the issue. I am not writing Renteria off by any stretch but I do wonder if at any point he will come even close to earning the money for which he signed. Oh well.

Red Sox negativity aside, the important thing that I think we are learning is that the O’s may be a bit longer for contention than many realize. With an offensive core of Javy Lopez, Brian Roberts, Melvin Mora, Miguel Tejada and Sammy Sosa, a strong bullpen and a starting staff that’s come better than advertised, I don’t see any reason why the O’s can’t make noise in the 2005 playoff race. I have been on the O’s bandwagon since the Sosa trade and I don’t see any reason to hop off now.

Rodrigo Lopez and Matt Clement tonight at Fenway, as the Sox try to climb to within one game of the American League East leaders.