musiclover

Daisuke Matsuzaka, who missed his last scheduled start with a sore back, surrendered four runs in 5 2/3 innings Thursday but his Boston Red Sox held on for a 6-4 victory over Baltimore.

“Right now, it’s not about me or my performance,” said the Japanese right-hander, who has allowed four runs in each of his last four outings. “It’s the fact that the team can get the win in the games that I start.”

Baltimore drivers are among the worst in the country, according to the 2010 Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report.

The report from Allstate (NYSE: ALL) ranked 200 of America’s largest cities using car collision frequency data and found Baltimore drivers experience an accident on average every 5.6 years.

Baltimore officials say the American Le Mans Series will also be part of the IZOD IndyCar Series next year on Labor Day weekend.

The Baltimore Grand Prix will have its inaugural event in 2011. It will take place on a temporary street circuit around the city’s downtown Inner Harbor area and is called the “Festival of Speed.”

The American Le Mans Series includes different classes of cars — Prototype and Grand Touring — which race on the track at the same time.

Two cruise ships out of the Port of Baltimore have made changes to itineraries and port calls this week because of Hurricane Earl. The Carnival Pride, which sailed Sunday on a 7-day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean, is skipping a port call at Grand Turk Island. Instead, the Pride will stop at Port Canaveral tomorrow, then spend two days in the Bahamas at Freeport and Nassau. The ship is also missing a call at Half Moon Cay – one of my favorite stops.

Are you a Justin Bieber fan or a parent/spouse of a Justin Bieber fan who lives in/around Baltimore? We’d like to talk to you for a story we’re working on about Bieber’s Maryland State Fair show. We’re open to all stories, funny, sad, heart-warming, heart-breaking about the boy wonder and this weekend’s show.

The 11th annual Baltimore Comic-Con opens Saturday morning, drawing an expected 15,000 attendees, and more than 150 guests, to the Baltimore Convention Center.

But none of those guests is a television or movie star, a professional wrestler, or a “model,” notes The Baltimore Sun. No, every one of them is actually involved in the creation of comics.

If you plan on traveling north of Baltimore on Interstate 95 today, an accident in Charm City may delay your trip.

State transportation officials say the northbound lanes of the interstate are closed just past Exit 57 (Boston/O’Donnell Street) due to a a serious car accident. Delays are building and motorists are being detoured before the accident scene. Offials said the closure may last into the evening rush hour and drivers should expect major delays.

Baltimore police say a 14-year-old girl shot two men, one of them fatally, after she tried to rob them and they laughed at her because she was so young.

The girl has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder, attempted murder and other crimes in the August 13 shooting.

Baltimore Police are identifying a man who was fatally beaten with a piece of lumber in what they call a hate crime.

Police say 51-year-old Martin Rayez was found early Saturday with severe trauma to his face and head and was pronounced dead on the scene.

Nineteen-year-old Jermaine Holley has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying after police say he confessed.

Marked police cruisers lined the 200 block of North Kenwood Avenue two days after 19-year old Jermaine Holley allegedly beat a Hispanic man to death with a wooden stake, and Mexican immigrant Loranzo Perez says he, too, has become a target for criminals in East Baltimore.

“Two times they rob my wallet,” said Perez.
“How much money did you lose?”
“500 dollars.”
“Did they have a gun?”
“Yes.”

Saturday evening, police say six people surrounded two Hispanic men and robbed them of a cell phone and three dollars in the 300 block of South Clinton Street.