Damn, It Feels Good To Be A Gansta

A few fun facts from last night:

Boston had 14 at-bats with the bases loaded -- 14! -- and four of their runs scored on bases-loaded walks. The Red Sox drew 14 walks, one short of the club record (1939, 1992); that total was four shy of the Orioles' franchise record. Baltimore pitchers threw 107 strikes and 116 balls. (Game stories from the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post.)

Keith Foulke worked with pitching coach Al Nipper and made a few tweaks to his delivery. He looked, and said he felt, much better last night than on Opening Day. Foulke continues to insist that he doesn't care if he's the closer -- which, while it might sound like he's simply trying to defuse the situation, is right in line with everything he's said since coming to Boston:

The thing that's great about being a closer is the fact that you get paid a lot more. Besides that, I have never asked to be a closer. I want to be a starter. So if you're asking me what I'd rather do, I'd rather start. But obviously we know that's not going to be possible. ... If we have a serious closer controversy on this team, that means the bullpen is pretty strong. ... I'm not going to play this game until I'm 45 years old. So, yeah, at some point I will be pushed aside. ... I don't know how else to tell you. I don't need to be a closer to play this game.

David Wells says he likes pitching in cold weather, but he didn't do so well in Pawtucket's damp chill last night. What went wrong? "Everything. Physically, I felt great, nothing like that, but just the conditions -- I had no feel for the ball at all. ... You can't throw a curveball or anything else, I just stuck to the changeup and fastball and you saw the results of that ... it's a bad night. No excuses."

Manny Ramirez spent a long time looking at video before the game. After going 1-for-10 in Texas, he was 3-for-4 last night. ... Wily Mo Pena -- who gets a start today -- is getting batting tips from Ortiz and Ramirez. Hard to do better than that.

Finagle A Bagel (which has 20 stores in the Boston area) is now selling the Coco Bagel: a cocoa-flavored bagel with chocolate chips and a coating of rice crisps.

Prior to the game, Kevin Millar wore a black and orange t-shirt with "Gansta [expletive]" on the front and "Cowboy Up" on the back. Apparently, "Gansta" is some strange pronunciation of Ramirez's. ... Speaking of gansta, I went here and typed in my first and last name and got "Cow-Tippin Canadian". No shit!