Red Sox vs. Twins lineup: Every time we win, we peel a section

So I messed up the lineups on Sunday. My brain combined elements of the previous games into one dream-game that I mentioned in the tweet and story. I regret the error. I don’t do the lineups as often I used to and I was — am — rusty. You know someone is really out of practice when they take forever to get to the point in the service of their own irrelevant story, and I promise not to do that, because I don’t want that to be my story. I get to the point. Like lightning. Does lightning strike fixed points? It must, right? I once saw a bolt of lightning hit my porch when I was really little, and a little ball of lightning danced on the wood, then jumped over and that was that. Except for my fear of lightning, which is real.

Anyhow if lightning DOES strike fixed points, I’d like it to do so, albeit metaphorically, to the Red Sox (74-63) for the duration of the season. They’ll have to do it at home starting tonight against the AL Central-league leading Twins (82-52), and they start tonight (7:10 p.m., NESN) 5.5 or 6 games out of the wild card race, depending on how you slice it. A lot. Rick Porcello (12-10, 5.42 ERA), who has gone between five and six innings every start for two months, could maybe do more than that tonight, if things worked out, against Twins starter (“Randy Dobnak,” who absolutely must be an opener and if I’m wrong on this one, it’s baseball’s fault, not mine). Take a cue from me, Rick, and be a model of contrition and modesty, but with absolute rafts of excellence that, for whatever reasons, you only harness once every few years. Wait what?

Things are getting too real to continue, but that’s also true of the baseball season. Things are supposed to feel raw right around now, and the world is obliging.