Yankees Beware

These are not the same Sox that you knocked around starting in game #9 of the season. After getting your collectives asses kicked 8 times in a row, you finally rise up and show some life like it was a pro wrestling smackdown. These Sox however, have won 9 of their last 10 games.

These Sox knocked the birds of Baltimore out of their nests for the 15th time in 17 contests between the 2 clubs this season. Jon Lester was good tonight, but not overpowering, and garnered his 14th win and team leading 22nd quality start, as the Sox beat the Orioles 11-5 at Fenway South. He allowed 10 hits in 6 innings, yet with all those hits, including 2 home runs, he kept the damage to 3 runs allowed. He did not issue any free passes.

Wagner, Saito, and Ramirez pitched 3 scoreless innings, allowing only 1 baserunner. Unfortunately, sandwiched in there was Manny Delcarmen's tough outing. He served up a phat meatball sandwich: 2 walks, 2 home runs, 0 outs. After a lights out April in which he tossed 13 scoreless innings, his ERA has been steadily rising ever since. I love a good home-town-boy-makes-good story, so I certainly hope he can correct his miscues before October. I'd hate to see him go. The Sox will certainly need the April MDC in about 2 & 1/2 weeks. Barring a '78esque implosion, the Sox will be squaring off against the Angels in the ALDS. They technically have not been eliminated from the AL East crown, but they are 7 games ahead of the reeling Rangers, the magic number down to 9 for the wild card slot. Let's not dismiss the fact that the Sox are 9 and 1 in their last 10 games, and have reduced the Yankees lead from 9 games to 6, but only 5 in the loss column. Yankees! You'd better not look over your shoulder lest you trip and fall! It still could happen, yaknow. Just sayin'....

OK, let's get back to tonight's game. Every starter had at least 1 hit, Pedroia and Ortiz 2 hits each, and Drew and Lowell 3 hits each, including a home run by Drew. Rookie Josh "Glenda" Reddick hit his 2nd home run of the season.

Alex Gonzalez made a 'Web Gem' worthy stab and turned a great 6-4-3 double play! I'm tellin' ya- sign this guy for the next 3 years!

Sox Win 11-5 BOX SCORE

Read more...

Rain Out

The Rays-Sox game has been postponed and will be made up as part of a double-header on Sunday. The game had actually gotten underway, Lester had thrown 23 pitches and had loaded the bases with only 1 out. Since this was the Ray’s last trip up north, it was decided to try and get the game in, but when the skies opened up, the umpires halted play. After a 2 & ½ hour rain delay, the umpires, Red Sox, and MLB decided to restart the game on Sunday. Both starting pitchers will start the 2nd game on Sunday.

The rain skirted NYC long enough for the Orioles-Yankees game to count- with the O’s on top 10-4 over the Yankees in the top of the 7th. In that game, Derek Jeter overtook Lou Gehrig in the 3rd inning for the franchise record of most hits.

Read more...

Byrd flies again, Sox send O's to Road Kill Cafe

Paul Byrd regained the form he displayed in his 1st start again in tonight’s contest against the AL birds, the Orioles. He went 5 innings, scattering 6 hits, and allowing only 2 runs. He left the game with a 3-2 lead. Manny Delcarmen enters the game and promptly but uncharacteristically earned his 3rd blown save of the season: 1/3 IP, 2 H’s, 1 BB, and 2 runs. Tonight’s road crew of Ramirez, Wagner, Bard, and Papelbon followed and scraped the Orioles off the road to October. Wagner earned his 1st victory in a Sox uni, Bard earned hold #10, and Papelbon scored save #35.

Offensively the Sox were hot again, spanking 15 hits. Every Sox starter, save 1, had a hit today; 5 had multi-hit games, including 3/5 by Jason Bay. Mike Lowell stole a base, his 1st of the season. The Birds of Baltimore managed to climb back into the game after Paul Byrd left, going 1 up on the Sox in the top of the 6th inning. Pedroia knocked in a run in the bottom of that inning to even it back up at 4 each. In the bottom of the 7th, V-Mart came off the bench to hit a double to clear 3 Sox off the field and across home plate, effectively leaving the Orioles as road kill this season, as they have won only 1 game at Fenway since July 12, 2008.

Sox Win 7-4 BOX SCORE

Read more...

Sox Win Slugfest, Buchholz Struggles

The Boston bats came out of the gate swinging and hammering the Orioles, scoring 4 in the first, and 14 runs total in the first 4 innings, scoring in each of them. You would think that staked to a 4 run lead in the first, that Buchholz would cruise, too, yet he walked the first batter he faced. He made it through the first 2 innings without allowing a run, but in the third inning, staked to a 7 run lead by that point, he climbed into the barrel until he gave up 6 runs. The Sox added 7 more runs in the 4th inning, giving Buchholz an 8 run lead heading into the bottom of the 5th. After a lead off homer by Adam Jones, he issued a free pass and allowed a single, which earned him an early trip to the bench. (Is it too late to swap Buchholz to get Masterson back?) The rest of the bullpen didn't fare well as they should have, but...

The Sox bats were still not done, though, not until they hammered the O's for 23 hits. (And neither were the O's bats quiet.) Every Sox starter had at least 1 hit, (save 1), 5 of them with multi-hit performances. Victor Martinez led the way with a 5 hits in 6 AB's and 4 RBI's.

Sox Win 18-10 BOX SCORE

Read more...

One Good Implosion Deserves Another

One day after the Orioles finally showed up at a game and embarrassed the Sox bullpen, they implode themselves. Granted, it wasn't a 9 run deficit that the Sox had relinquished, but the O's squandered a 4 run lead in the top of the 9th, allowing the Sox to tie the game, and eventually win in the top of the 11th inning.

Drew, Pedroia, and Ellsbury all had 2 hit games, while Youk hit a 2 run blast, his 14th of the season. Josh Beckett was not quite the kick ass commander he's been of late, as he allowed 6 H's, 2 BB's, 2 HR's, and 5 ER's over 7 innings. Bard tossed 2 scoreless innings, striking out 4. Ram-Ram gets the win, and Papelbon tossed a 1-2-3 11th for his 20th save one day after earning his 2nd BS of the season.

Sox WIN 6-5 Box Score

Read more...

O-uch!!!

The Orioles finally said enough and took it out on Justin Masterson and the rest of the bullpen tonight. John Smoltz pitched 4 innings, allowing 3 H's, 1 BB, 1 ER, while striking out 2, all on 52 pitches, 34 of them strikes. He was staked to a 9 run lead by the work of Lugo, Pedroia, Youkilis, Ellsbury, Ortiz, and Bailey, all of whom had at least 2 hits. Smoltz did not return to pitch after a 71 minute rain delay. Enter Justin Masterson, exit wheels. Masterson allowed 5 straight hits, 5 ER's. Exit Masterson, enter Delcarmen, who allowed 1 of Masterson's runners in before registering 2 outs. Exit Delcarmen, enter Okajima. His line is ugly: 0.1 IP, 5 H's, 4 ER's. Exit Okajima, enter Saito. More ugly: 0.1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER. Exit Saito, enter Papelbon. Sigh. We're still in the 8th inning. The O's scored 5 in the 7th, and 5 in the 8th. Pap gets BS #2.

Sox lose 11-10 Box Score

Read more...

Sweet Return to Playing the AL East

Ah, now that this interleague mumbo jumbo is over for 2009...well, at least until hopefully October...the Red Sox got back to business which means playing the Al East's own Baltimore Orioles. Much like the Nationals and Braves...playing the Orioles is like playing at home when you are away.



Tonight it was Jonny Lester on the mound verses Jason Berken. Lester's numbers have been ridiculously good against the Orioles and he continued it tonight. He pitched 7 shutout innings.....and was following by 2 more shutout innings from the bullpen. Lester struck out 8 batters and only allowed 5 hits. Delcarmen and Okajima took care of the 8th inning and we were on to the 9th. Ramon Ramirez came on for the 9th inning. He quickly retired the first two batters he faced and then gave up a hit and a walk to the next two. So, that meant that Jonathan Papelbon was up and in the game going for his 19th save of the season and career 132th save as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Papelbon got the "Second Coming of Christ" aka Matt Wieters to pop out to left field and GAME OVER...SOX WIN.

Papelbon is now tied with Bob Stanley for 132 career saves with the Boston Red Sox. When Pap gets his next save, he will alone hold that stat line.

Oh wait, I also get to sing JD Drew's praises and we know how much I LOVE to do that. JD was on fire tonight. He was a double short of the cycle. He started off with a triple that ALMOST left the park. Followed by a two run homerun and then a little itty bitty single. He was a hitting machine. JD was moved into the lead off spot and Dustin Pedroia was moved back in the 2 spot. So far, this small sample size seems like a genius move from Tito.

Let's see anything else to report. Oh. Sox defense was also pretty gosh darn good tonight. JD Drew made quite a number of great catches out in right field. Jacoby Ellsbury made his usual spectacular catch in center field. Nick Green continues to impress at short stop with that bullet of an arm of his. Jason Bay...on that pop up to left field to end the game. It was not routine. Jason Bay slid over and made a breath taking diving catch to end the ball game and give Pap his record tying save.

All in all. A good game folks. Let's do it again tomorrow.

Sox WIN 4-0.

Read more...

The Alarm Clock Has Rung, The Sox Have Awoken!

Justin Masterson got the call to start today, as the Sox rotation was in a bit of flux with Dice-K on the DL, along with a pending 6 game suspension that was hovering over Beckett for a day or two before it was reduced. Masterson is looking like he could be another Julian Tavarez: short relief, long relief, starter; he's done it all so far this year. Masterson went 5.1 innings tossing 84 pitches. He allowed only 4 H's, 2 BB's, 1 ER, while notching 3 K's and his first W of the season.

The bullpen studs came through again, this time it was Delcarmen, Okajima, Lopez, and Hunter Jones (who?), allowing only 1 H and 1 BB in 3.2 innings.

Have you been wondering about the top of the line-up? Well, today Ellsbury, Pedroia, and Papi combined to go 9 for 16, scoring 7 times, and knocking in 6 runs.

Two of the big question marks over the winter were Lowell and Varitek. Both went 2 for 5 today, and combined for 3 R's and 3 RBI's.

Kevin Youkilis had only 1 H today. He also drew 3 BB's, 1 of which was an IBB. (No explanation necessary.) His BA stands at a FAT .469.

The Sox have now won 5 in a row, sweeping the O's and climbing into a tie for 2nd place after a 2-6 start that had them in the cellar (gasp!) for a couple of days.

When all was said and done, the SOX plated 12 men, beating the Orioles 12 - 1. BOX SCORE

Tim Wakefield gets the start tomorrow against the Twins.

Read more...

On the Road Again

Fenway West is on his spring tour of 4 games and 1 Dead show in 5 days, while I was out all day playing at a show, so please accept our apologies for the lack of coverage today! Normal coverage will resume tomorrow.

Lester dominates Orioles as SOX win 2-1

Masterson gets the start tomorrow.

Read more...

Red Sox & O's Trade Pitchers

The Red Sox have traded David Pauley to the Orioles for Randor Bierd. Don't really know what to think of this move other than "Randor Bierd" is an interesting name.

Read more...