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As you'd expect for an early spring training road game, it's a motley assembly of wannabe Orioles who will take the field wearing the uniform today. Still, it's the Orioles playing the Red Sox, so even if it doesn't count, it'd be nice to watch the dreams of Boston crushed forever and ever. If only the universe would be so obliging in this matter. The 2013 Red Sox winning the World Series is evidence in the column against the existence of a benevolent power governing the universe.
Anyway, we're in for a treat, because for a second consecutive day, the O's will be on TV. That's provided you get MLB Network, at least. If you don't, well, sorry. It'll probably just be the Red Sox broadcast simulcast on MLBN, so maybe you can tell yourself that you're being spared a session of torture. It might also be Harold Reynolds or something. Yikes.
If you've missed the first couple of spring games, the early favorite for the Jake Fox Award for Spring Training Excellence is Francisco Peguero, the out-of-options outfielder the O's picked up from the Giants in the offseason. He's fighting to make it onto the team as a fourth outfielder or even as part of some kind of left field platoon. He's the right fielder today. Veteran players don't go on road trips on March 2. So if Peguero continues his reign of terror today against the Red Sox, stating his case for why he should be on the team, that would not be bad at all.
You know it's a game you can't take too seriously because the starter is Brian Matusz. Look, it's great that the Orioles are trying to encourage him a little, it really is. Lamentably, Matusz as a starter occupies the same conceptual space as the word "fetch" in the movie Mean Girls. It's not going to happen and they should stop trying to make it happen. He'll probably only pitch two innings today, but with David Ortiz batting third, he should get at least one shot against the player he's dominated. Adding another strikeout, even a meaningless spring training one, would be sweet.