The last time I visited Fenway Park, I was barely in any shape to be there. The night before, my friend & I pushed ourselves a little bit – as much as you can in a town that closes at 2 a.m. – but I do remember ending up at Man Ray, a Cambridge disco, the lights coming on, being shooed out to the street, and thinking, “Oh man… tomorrow’s a day game.”

Luckily, it was one of those 4 p.m. national TV games… so, even though my buddy and I were hurtin’ for certain, we managed to catch an early-ish train to the ballpark. Not sure we would’ve done it for any other pitcher, but Greg Maddux was on the mound that day and we were determined to make it to the right-field corner seats so that we could get an up-close view of his pre-game bullpen warm-up.

Rushing over to Section 1 – as much as we could anyway – we settled in just a few feet behind bullpen catcher Alan Butts, and saw #31 begin to warm. When he started to throw some real pitches, my buddy and I looked at each other relatively unimpressed. I’d seen some real flamethrowers up close (Lee Smith, Randy Johnson, etc.), so I boldly said: “Y’know, I think I could hit that.”

Then, Maddux got serious. The next few pitches cruised in at the same velocity, but at the very last instant you would see the ball break right, dart down, break left. It was like magic.

A little stunned, I turned to my pal and said: “Um, I should really amend my previous statement.”

My pal: “Don’t even bother – that guy’s an immortal & he’s on our team… Whaddya say? Hair of the dog?”

The Game: Tonight at Fenway Park, Boston beat Atlanta 8-0, and there was really nothing fun about it. Combine a quick flurry of well-timed Red Sox singles with some icky Braves misplays, and you have a game that’s quickly decided in an early inning.

Sawx starter Connelly Early threw an impressive 7 shutout frames, Boston’s first 14 hits were singles, and, for one night, our club looked a bit like the Bad News Braves. Turn the page… go for the series win tomorrow afternoon.

The very early innings saw threats, but no runs. In fact, in both the first 2 innings, the Braves had 2 on with one out only to come away with nada. It should be noted that Mauricio Dubón made yet another big play, this time from LF, by throwing out Bosox CF Cedanne Rafaela at the plate to wrap up the bottom of the first. After a Willson Contreras single, he fired a short-hop strike to catcher Chadwick Tromp, who easily tagged the runner.

In fact, both teams overcame early-inning errors. The Sox skated thru a first inning that included an error from their SS Marcelo Mayer. The Braves emerged unscathed in the 2nd after a genuinely embarrassing throwing error from Braves starter Bryce Elder, who flubbed a Nick Sogard bunt, then (instead of taking a bite out of the ball) blithely threw it so far down the RF line that Sogard chugged all the way to third.

The Inning from Hell: However… it was another cringey error that finally stung the Braves and ultimately aided the Sawx offense. After a sac bunt put runners on second and third in the 4th, Matt Olson kicked an atom ball into foul territory, allowing the first run. Instead of 2 outs with either one or no runs scored, the inning quickly got out of hand.

An IKF single drove in run #2. Jarren Duran’s single loaded ’em up & Rafaela’s 2-run single to LF made it 4-0 Boston*. Exit Elder with runners on the corners & 1 out. Enter Dylan Dodd, who spiked one in the dirt to advance the runner to second, then allowed Wilyer Abreu to lace a 2-run single to CF. 6-0 Sawx.

(* – Dubón might’ve had another OF assist on that play, but Tromp couldn’t handle the throw home, allowing Duran to advance to third. So… 3 Braves errors in the first 4 innings.)

After that, the Braves mostly went down like lambs. They finished with 5 hits and 4 walks. The Sawx tacked on another run in the 7th on – yup – a pair of singles. 7-0 Sawx. Then, in the 8th, Duran broke the singles streak with a Pesky Pole homer to right – 8-0. By then, the only question was whether or not the Braves would avoid the goose-egg. They wouldn’t.

Move on, nothing to see here, turn the page.

Tomorrow at 4:10, Braves ace Chris Sale (7-3. 1.89 ERA) faces Red Sox lefty lumberjack Payton Tolle (2-2, 2.45). Go Braves.