Well, that wasn't a good start.

The Sox lost the 2007 opener to the Royals 7-1 yesterday. Curt Schilling was knocked out after 4 innings, his shortest start in a decade. Hideki Okajima (also known as "That other Japanese guy") gave up a home run on his first MLB pitch. The Royals Gil Meche (who's $55 million contract I've been making fun of all winter) looked like he was well worth $11 million a year in shutting down the Red Sox for 7 and 1/3 after a shaky first inning.

Obviously, you can't panic after one game, and there were a few good things to take from this. Dustin Pedroia went 2-for-3 after everyone had been questioning his offensive ability all spring. Okajima settled down after his rude greeting by John Buck to keep the Royals scoreless for the rest of his 1 and 2/3 innings. Brendan Donnelly, Javier Lopez and JC Romero all had scoreless appearances out of the bullpen.

The Red Sox and Schilling have had their troubles against the Royals of late. Kansas City's sweep of the Red Sox last August could easily be pointed to as the beginning of the end for the Red Sox pennant hopes in 2006. The Royals got 10 extra base hits off Schilling in his last start against him. It seemed to be just a bad day all around.

Day off today, then Josh Beckett starts tomorrow, followed by the regular season debut of Dice-K on Thursday. Wonder if there will be much of a media turnout for that one?