Red Sox vs. Rays lineup: This is our city

I love the Patriots’ Day game because it’s basically a second Opening Day. This game — which used to be at 10 a.m.! — turns the new baseball season into the new Red Sox season. It has always been ours and ours alone, and I adore it for that, though now it is so much more.

After the Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath, the game has become a sacred event, a collective church service for the team and region that, like many church services, starts before noon. (11:05 a.m.; unlike most church services, it will air on NESN). It’s been four years now since the attacks, four years minus five days since David Ortiz brought the hammer home:

Ortiz has been conspicuously absent from the Red Sox this season, but I would not be surprised to Big Papi on the field today. Just a guess.

On a lighter note, it is the 10th anniversary of the incomparable Here Comes The Pizza! game:

I’d recommend a 21-slice-salute if I didn’t think it would conflict with today’s actual solemnity, or if I thought it was okay to waste pizza. Unlike pizza, the clip gets better with age. My favorite part is Jerry Remy reading the promo coming back from commercial while Don Orsillo fails to keep it together; they’ve clearly been working their way into a lather during the ads, and they can’t take it anymore, and then the forensics start. Your favorite part may be different, but it makes no difference. It’s a masterpiece.

I miss Don. Especially today. L’chiam, though. There is a game to be played, and games are fun. Let’s get it on. Here are the lineups: