Dragnet "Does This Blog Exist?": Rangers at Sox

The answer to the question above is, quite plainly, yes, it does. WMYM was on a week-long sabbatical out of reach on the other side of the pond, and just got back from an epic set of flights that transported your fearless blogger from Sevilla, Spain, through London and Montreal, to the U.S. By the end of the trip, door-to-door from the epic Seville hotel Alphonso XII, the trip took 23 hours and 11 minutes. Here's some more fascinating numbers from what was an incredibly bloggable in transit journey: cab rides before 6 in the morning? 1. American mothers spending 48 minutes in an Iberian airlines checkout counter? 1. Number of legs of ham hanging in the airport shop windows in Madrid's Barajas airport? 6. Number of cafe Americanos served instead of actual coffee? 2. Number of Starbucks coffees and shortbreads bought while waiting in the mall that is London Heathrow's Terminal 3? 2. Number of giant Cadbury's chocolate bars bought while waiting? 3. Number consumed en route? 1. Number of crazy Canadiens fans furious at the prospect of having to serve anyone wearing a hat of a Boston sports team (the Habs are playing the Bruins, after all)? 4.


OK, that's enough for now, because none of it really matters. What does matter is that Manny Ramirez is swinging a hot bat after a two dinger night in Yankee Stadium, Daisuke Matsuzaka hits the hill with a chance to improve to 4-0 tonight, and Jonathan Papelbon looks scarily shaky early on in the season.

While Dice-K has been impressive in the early going, he continues to fine-tune (or struggle with, if you're a Yankees fan) his control. He's issued a whopping 15 walks across his four starts, and while his last outing against the Yankees wasn't a gem, it wasn't a disaster, either. He did get the win after all. Tonight, he'll get a look at an intriguing lineup - here's how it shakes out, courtesy Baseball Reference as always - with plenty of potential trouble spots (Hank Blalock, anyone?). Still, Dice-K will have to work deep into the game if the Sox are to hit stride on a home stand, a trick given that they'd otherwise be prone for a big letdown after a heated Yankees series. The Globe also is offering a series snapshot at Extra Bases, a series which we can hope they continue throughout the season.

And if you want more numbers, you have to check this out. Where the Herald's Rob Bradford found this guy, we may never know. Where he finds the time to track down all these obscure stats, we'll DEFINITELY never know. Either way, it's positively brilliant.

So, what should we expect tonight? Well, for starters, look for more potential  bullpen drama. In today's Globe, Gordon Edes noted that amidst consistent struggles, the Sox are peering over at Craig Hansen, who not only has taken his demotion to Pawtucket in stride this time around, he's also killing minor league batters. If that continues, he may force Boston's hand into a trip north. That wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, to say the least.

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