Wayne's World

The Red Sox will have four players in the All-Star Game starting lineup: Johnny Damon, Jason Varitek, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. It's the most starters for one team since the Reds in 1976. Tizzle led all players with 4,138,141 votes.

New voting procedures left Francona with only five choices, four of them pitchers. And because every team has to have at least one representative, both Matt Clement and Mike Timlin were left off the roster. Francona said the decision "crushed" him. Timlin was also upset: "This is the only time in my career that I've actually had the numbers to go. It'll never happen again for me. Ever. I've got no shot. It doesn't happen for a middle reliever."

Speaking of Timlin, his ERA may be a puny 1.57, but he's allowed 11 of 18 of inherited baserunners (including two yesterday) to score -- a whopping 61%. ... Curt Schilling makes his second rehab start (85-95 pitches) in Pawtucket this evening.

It's annoying when out-of-town sportswriters think they can gauge the mood of Red Sox fans. They almost always get it wrong. Today's ignorant writer is Gil LeBreton of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I don't listen to talk radio of any kind, but I believe he grossly exaggerates the degree of worry among fans. We certainly are not overly concerned with the Yankees, even though LeBreton writes:

Boston stands five games ahead of the hated New York Yankees. And apparently that worries all of New England. Yankees in a rearview mirror are always closer than they appear to be.

This sentence got me laughing about LeBreton's penchant for accuracy:

Red Sox Nation doesn't understand, however, why Francona has been so devoted to Wayne Embree (7.68 ERA).

Well, LeBreton's got a point there. I don't understand Tito's devotion to Wayne either.

In Texas:

Monday: Wade Miller / Ricardo Rodriguez, 8:00
Tuesday: Tim Wakefield / Chris Young, 8:00
Wednesday: Matt Clement / Chan Ho Park, 8:00