Well helloooooo, Cody Ross! With David Ortiz on the DL, Bobby V. decided to slip Ross into the coveted #3 spot in the line up last night, and I don’t imagine he was too disappointed. Cody Ross, in short, kicked ass. He went three for five with back-to-back three-run home runs. He scored three runs, knocked in six and had 10 total bases. If you’re keeping score, this is the highest RBI total by any member of the Sox this season. Cody almost did it again in the sixth when he smacked a double off the left field wall. Cody told reporters after the game he thought he hit that one out too.

Adrian Gonzalez, who accounted for the other four RBI in this game also went three for four and is now just four percentage points below .300. I’d say he’s getting back into the swing of things (pun intended!) Oh and wait, Jacoby Ellsbury also had three hits which just goes to show you that when you sit out for three months for a shoulder injury, you’ve had more than enough time to get really strong!

It’s games like this that make me remember why I love baseball!

Felix Doubront opened the game with a shaky first inning allowing the White Sox to score, but settled down and ended up pitching a gem for his 10th win of the season. Yes, the Red Sox actually have one pitcher who has 10 wins all by himself. Not to be confused with the Beckett/Lester combo that has 10 total wins. (Just in case you were confoosed.) Doubront pitched six innings of four-hit, one-run ball. I’ll take that line every five starts for sure from my “ace.” Matt Albers, Mark Melancon and Andrew Miller pitched the seventh, eight and ninth to finish out the W.

For the high-flying, homer-filled box score, click on over here, courtesy of the Red Sox. The two Sox teams of various colors will finish up their four-game series tonight at 7:10 with Clay Buchholz toeing the rubber in search of his ninth win.

The Red Sox put away the Miami Marlins 7-5 last night — their fifth win in their last six games. Granted, the teams they’ve beaten (the Marlins and the Cubs) have sub .500 records, but hey, a win’s a win, right? At this point in the season I’m not going to be picky. I just want wins. I want this team to show some life and get their butts out of that dreaded last place spot. Watch out Toronto! Here we come. Maybe.

Clay Buchholz won his eighth… huh? Let me try that again. Clay Buchholz won his eighth. I’m sorry, after the start he had to this season, I never expected to ever be typing those words. Not only that, but Clay also leads the team in wins. My head is spinning.

Buchholz wasn’t as sharp last night as his previous June outings. He did surrender five earned runs on nine hits during his six-inning stint. All five Marlins’ runs were knocked in by DH Logan Morrison who hit a 2-run home run in the first and RBI doubles in the second and fifth innings. But the bullpen was once again spot on with Matt Albers, Andrew Miller, Vicente Padilla and Alfredo Aceves pitching a scoreless seven-eight-nine. Aceves struck out two in the ninth for his 17th save.

The Red Sox got home runs from David Ortiz (his 17th), Kelly Shoppach and Cody Ross (who is fresh off the DL) and doubles from Dustin Pedroia, Mike Aviles, Kevin Youkilis, Will Middlebrooks and Daniel Nava to power the offense. It’s nice to see this hard hitting line up when it clicks like that. And Buchholz needed all the help he could get from the offense. After the game, Cody Ross spoke to reporters about his home run:

“It’s big to get that first one out of the way,” said Red Sox outfielder Cody Ross. “I can’t really explain it — the way we’ve played at home this year is really weird. We all love playing here, obviously. This is a great place to play, and to get that first one on a long home stand is really encouraging. Hopefully we can just go out and get on a good winning streak.”

Click on over to here for the winning box score, courtesy of the Red Sox. The Sox and Fish are back at it tonight in what promises to be a steamy Fenway with temps in the 90′s today. Felix Doubront will shoot for his eighth win of the season. I hope he likes the heat. I’ll be at Fenway tonight, most likely sitting in a puddle of my own sweat. Gross.

It’s so refreshing to see a Red Sox starting pitcher take the mound, throw strikes, not make faces at the home plate umpire, not buy into his own hype, and just quietly and calmly gut out a win for a team that really needs them.  Thank you, Franklin Morales, for being the most admirable starting pitcher in the bunch.  Morales, who took over the injured Josh Beckett’s slot for a spot start last night, pitched five innings.  His 80 pitches were the most he’s thrown since he was a starter for the Colorado Rockies in 2009.  He gave up two runs, four hits, and struck out nine without walking a single batter.

On Morales’s effort, the Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs 7-4, taking two of three in the interleague series.  The Sox are (gasp!) BACK AT .500.  They’ve won two straight, and they’ll take a day off today (one of Josh Beckett’s 18 days off, I presume?) before returning to Fenway to host the Miami Marlins.

The game started off strong for the Sox.  Scott Podsednik led off with a single, and then scored on Dustin Pedroia’s double to left center field.  A Kevin Youkilis sac fly and a David Ortiz single scored Pedroia to give the Sox an early 2-0 lead.

The Cubs scored one run in the bottom of the first.  Things settled down until the bottom of the third inning, when Chicago scored its second run on a Starlin Castro “double” to shallow right field that Pedroia and right fielder Darnell MacDonald couldn’t sort out before it bounced off Pedroia’s glove.  Two things: first, very very hometown scoring there – if that’s a legitimate double, then I’m Bryce Harper; and second, Terry Francona, who was calling the game for ESPN, instantly jumped to Pedroia’s defense and heaped all the blame on MacDonald.  Personally, I saw Pedroia call for the ball and then let it bounce off his glove.  We all know how much Tito loves Pedroia, his cribbage buddy.  But, if Tito wants to be a neutral ESPN analyst, he should start by being neutral.

Anyway.  Ortiz made things right the next inning, when he hit a monster home run to center field to put the Red Sox ahead again, but his efforts were thwarted by yet another defensive miscue involving Pedroia.  Pedroia and Mike Aviles Aviles met at second base to handle a force out from a tap-back to pitcher Matt Albers.  Aviles cut in front of Pedroia, dropped the ball and picked up the error, and the Cubs evened the score again.  This one was clearly Aviles’s fault, but it’s kind of weird that Pedroia was involved in both defensive communication issues this game.  Is he not calling for the ball or something?  I find it hard to believe that both Aviles and MacDonald would just ignore Pedroia calling for the ball.

It seems like all was forgiven though, as the Red Sox put up three runs in the top of the seventh inning to grab the lead for good.  MacDonald doubled, pinch-hitter Jarrod Saltalamacchia singled, Ryan Kalish – who made his return from the minor leagues yesterday – singled, Will Middlebrooks hit a sac fly to center field, and Daniel Nava dropped a bunt.

Good win for the Red Sox all around.  Except for the Curse of Dustin Pedroia, it looks like things were rolling, at least for one night.  Here’s a link to the box score, courtesy of the Red Sox.  Boston returns to Fenway from its 4-2 road trip on Tuesday, when it welcomes the Miami Marlins.  Clay Buchholz (7-2, 5.38 ERA) will try to repeat his last great start against Miami.  He’s up against Mark Buehrle (5-7, 3.41 ERA), who picked up his first loss in ten interleague games against the Red Sox last week.

Red Sox could use some of their heart.

The Red Sox lost 8-6 to the (tied for) first place Baltimore Orioles last night and once again claimed sole possession of the AL East basement. Since last September, this team has done nothing but fill my head with the “F” word. In my opinion it comes down to this: they got no heart, no grit, no balls. Maybe they should be watching the Celtics game in the dugout, learn what grit and balls is all about. Maybe Kevin Garnett needs to come give this team a little chest thumping pep talk.

I honestly thought their short stint out of last place would give them a fire in their bellies. It’s not that they’re not hitting, they just can’t seem to string those hits together to make something happen. They left 10 men on base last night and were 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position. *gags* Most days, if your pitching is spot on, six runs will get you the W. Last night was not one of those days.

Jon Lester got the start and allowed eight hits, four runs (just two of them earned) and struck out five on 99 pitches. Bobby V. lifted him with after giving up a lead-off single in the top of the seventh, bringing in Scott Atchison, who has been the best pitcher in the bullpen this season. Lights out. A miniscule ERA. Nineteen plus scoreless innings. Welp, that all ended last night. Atchison had a case of the yips — not as sharp as he’s known to be. He faced four batters in a third of an inning, gave up two hits, two runs, walked one and allowed an inherited runner to score. O’s take a 6-4 lead. He spoke about his outing after the game.

“It’s been a good run,” said Atchison. “You kind of notice it after awhile that it’s been awhile, but it’s over now. Get back out there tomorrow and try to start another one. That’s kind of the best way I think to do it, and that’s what I plan to do.”

Matt Albers pitched a scoreless 1.2 innings and Alfredo Aceves came in for the ninth to try and give the Sox a chance to get back in the game in the bottom of the inning. He set down the O’s 1-2-3. *phew*

Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who is fast becoming one of my favs, came up in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and Ortiz on base. He smashed a 96 mph Jim Johnson fastball off the top of the Green Monster for a two-run home run. There was a question on whether or not it actually cleared the line but after review, the play stood. Game tied 6-6. More late inning heroics for Salty!

Aceves returned to the mound in the top of the 10th and walked the lead off batter. Never a good thing. This guy gives me a heart attack every time he takes the mound and last night was no exception. I won’t get into specifics because, well, it makes me want to stab someone, but the wheels fell of the bus, the O’s scored two and the Sox went down quietly in the bottom of the inning for the loss and yet another day in last place.

If you can stomach it, click on over here for the box, courtesy of the Red Sox. Tonight, Josh Beckett (4-5, 4.26) attempts to stop the bleeding.

Salty, The Enforcer (photo by Keith Allison, c/o flickr.com)

After a strong showing in Baltimore, taking two of three games from the first place Orioles, the Red Sox received a rude welcome home to Fenway as the Tampa Bay Rays beat them 7-4. Oh how I miss the days of the Sox and Yankees battling for the top spot in the AL East while the rest of the division just…well…sucked.

Jon Lester was not sharp in his four-inning outing last night. He struggled, giving up seven earned runs on six hits — three of which were home runs. Walks hurt Lester and the Sox last night. He walked two in the third inning and those two scored when Matt Joyce hit his grand slam.

The bullpen was once again strong. Scott Atchison, Matt Albers and Franklin Morales held the Rays scoreless through the remaining five innings, but not without some controversy.

The Red Sox offense was stymied by the Rays’ pitching staff managing to scrap out four runs on just four hits. No one had more than one hit. *blerg*

Blood between these two teams has been bad this season, mostly sparked by Luke Scott’s not-so-complimentary comments earlier this season directed at Fenway Park and the Sox fans. The Wolverine-wanna-be had a pretty quiet night offensively, going 0 for 4 and striking out twice, but he still manages to get under your skin.

In the top of the ninth, Morales relieved Albers and got Carlos Pena to ground out, and then struck out BJ Upton. And up came Luke Scott. Morales threw the first pitch inside…so far inside that it was behind Scott. Four pitches later, Morales plunked him on the leg with a 97 mph fastball. Ouch. I don’t think Fake Wolverine thought that was very nice. Although MLB.com’s Ian Browne did report that it was not on purpose.

“You know what? I tried to go with my fastball in and I missed and I don’t know, I wasn’t trying to do it on purpose,” Morales said. “I tried to go in with him and I missed the pitch.”

Instead of heading to first, Scott, bat in hand, headed towards the mound. Jarrod Saltalamacchia intercepted him and redirected him away from his pitcher. This sort of thing always gives me a new respect for catchers. Salty’s pretty tall and with all that equipment on, looks a tad bit menacing. Personally, I was waiting for a Varitek-like cuff to the side of the head, but Salty was pretty calm.

Well, then all hell broke loose. The benches cleared, the bullpens emptied and there was the typical shoving and jawing that usually happens during a baseball “fight”, but no punches (or slaps) were thrown. Surprisingly, the coaches from each team seemed to be the most heated participants of the melee. No ejections were handed out but this should make the rest of the weekend veeeeery interesting.

If you feel the need to be tortured by the box score, click on over to here, courtesy of the Red Sox. Tonight’s game features Josh Beckett facing off against David Price. First pitch is at 7:15pm. Wonder which Beckett will show up tonight… I hope it’s not the one I hate.

Red Sox Loss = Pie Chart

Six hours and seven minutes. That’s how long it took the Red Sox to lose to the Baltimore Orioles this afternoon/evening in 17 innings. I’m not even sure where to start. I actually have the urge to just end this post right here and post a picture of one of my dogs. That’s how painful this game was. Their losing streak is at five games and they managed to only win one game on this most recent homestand. Shit is looking bleak, yo.

Clay Buccholz just flat out stinks this year. He, yet again, gave up five earned runs in this game which means he has now given up five earned runs in six consecutive starts. Really, Clay? I’m sure this is some kind of record and not the good kind. The bullpen, on the other hand, was outstanding. The combination of Andrew Miller (just back from the DL), Matt Albers, Vicente Padilla, Alfredo Aceves, Franklin Morales, Rich Hill and Scott Atchison managed to pitch 12.1 scoreless innings.

But this game went 17 innings and outlasted the bullpen. Darnell McDonald (yes, that Darnell McDonald who sometimes plays left field) came in to pitch the 17th. Darnell hasn’t pitched since August of 2011. Darnell gave up a three-run homerun to Adam Jones. Darnell took the loss. I’m confused. Didn’t they still have one pitcher left in the bullpen? I could’ve sworn there was a lonely Clayton Mortensen left sitting there. Or did I imagine that?

The offensive highlight of today’s game goes to young Will Middlebrooks. I love this kid and today, he didn’t disappoint. Will hit his first major league homerun today — a grand slam to tie the game at five. I’ll even forgive his base running blunder. Other than Ryan Sweeney’s four hits, there wasn’t really anything else to get excited about. And just when we though maybe Adrian Gonzalez was back on track, he went 0 for 8 with two strike outs. The second strike out happened to come in the bottom of the 17th against Chris Davis (not a member of their pitching staff) with two men on and no outs. Oh and Cody Ross struck out five times.

I have nothing else to say. This game drained me. See for yourself — click here for the box, courtesy of the Red Sox.

Next up — a three game series in Kansas City. Felix Doubront will toe the rubber on Monday to try and stop the bleeding. First pitch is at 8:10 EST. Here’s hoping he has a good outing, I think this bullpen is toast just about now and could really use a break. I could use a break too.

Last night sucked. There, I said it. It especially sucked for me mainly because I stayed up and watched the all 13 painful innings. Normally on a Friday night, the week has taken its toll on me and I’m sound asleep on the couch by 8pm. Not that I didn’t snooze here and there during this game, but I was there in the end. Needless to say, I wish I had just stayed asleep. I’ve decided that each loss I document, will now be graced with a new pie chart.

Sometimes “cheese” causes “gas”… just sayin’.

I almost want to recap last night’s game caveman-style. You know, with grunts. Because I felt like I did a lot of grunting last night. The Red Sox score a run, the Orioles score a run. *grunt* The Red Sox score two runs, the O’s score two runs. *grunt-grunt* The Red Sox score another run… well, you get the picture. In the end, the O’s scored more runs *grunt* and won 6-4 in 13 innings. *gruuuuuuunt*

Offense…
What can I say? When only one or two guys are hitting the ball, it’s hard to score runs. Adrian Gonzalez, who had a pretty tough night in the third game of the A’s series, seemed to come alive when everyone else was napping. He went 3 for 6 but had no runs batted in. Weird. Dustin Pedroia was the only other player to have more than one hit going 2 for 5. David Ortiz, the star of my last pie chart, was a major disappointment last night. He had some good swings, but ultimately took a big 0-fer and left six men on base.

When is it ok for a 41-year-old woman to throw herself on the floor and engage in an epic toddler-type tantrum? Because I’m close. Oh, so very close.

Pitching…
Lester was again, just ok. I’m tired of ok. I want awesome. He lasted just six innings and gave up three earned runs on five hits. He walked three and struck out only two. Disappointing. Vicente Padilla started the 7th and gave up the tying run. Rich Hill and Matt Albers managed to keep the O’s scoreless through the 9th.

Alfredo Aceves struck out six of the seven batters he faced in the 10th and 11th. He had some pretty impressive stuff going on. His movement on his pitches had the O’s batters flailing at almost everything they swung at. But in the 12th, he was lifted for Franklin Morales who gave up the winning runs in the 13th and ultimately took the loss. Oy…

So now, the Red Sox are three games below .500 and seven games behind the first place Tampa Bay Rays who, by the way, have won six straight. And that’s without Evan Longoria. I’m not sure what this Sox team can do to turn things around — I guess if I did know, they’d offer to pay me boatloads of money to come work for them. I’m just stumped. And I think Bobby V. is too.

Here’s a link to the box (if you want your eyes to bleed), courtesy of the Red Sox. Aaron Cook, who was called up from Pawtucket earlier this week, will get his first start for the Sox today, taking Josh Beckett’s scheduled start. Beckett is expected to miss just one start due to a sore lat muscle. First pitch is at 1:10pm.

If you happen to be an O’s fan, you should check out the recap by our sister site, Charm City Yakyuu. It might be a little happier-sounding than mine.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Once a month, we’re going to try to take a step back and take stock of what the bigger picture looks like for the Boston Red Sox.

April 2012: the bigger picture’s a little blurry.  It’s definitely no DaVinci, and it probably doesn’t belong in an art museum.  I think that a lot of people still aren’t really sure what this team has in it.  But one thing’s for sure: so far, the Red Sox haven’t impressed in the long term.  Sure, there are dominant streaks here and there – the Sox blew out a few teams, won a lot of games in a row after a truly dismal start – but still on May 4, we’re looking at a team that’s two games under .500, last in the ultra-competitive AL East, and staring up a steep six-game deficit to first-place Tampa.  The Yankees are in fourth, and Toronto and Baltimore probably won’t last in the third and second spots, respectively, but that doesn’t make me feel mounds better.  Even if the Sox scramble into third place, third place in the AL East is the first loser in playoff contention.

Starting pitching: here’s what worries me about the starting pitching.  They’re working through their fifth turn in the rotation, and none of the Red Sox front five have an ERA under 4.00.  Josh Beckett’s averaging around 6.2 innings pitched per start (32.1 innings pitched), and Jon Lester’s at around 6.1 (31.0 innings pitched), but that’s about as good as it gets.  What that means is, to put it simply, that five turns in, the starting rotation hasn’t been able to put together consistent quality starts.

Clay Buchholz, especially, is getting beat up.  Even though he leads the team with three wins (and as we all know from the Felix Hernandez Cy Young discussion, wins are pretty irrelevant in evaluating an individual pitcher’s success), his 8.69 ERA reflects the fact that he’s let up seven home runs (tying Beckett for a team high) and struck out far fewer batters than many of his rotation buddies.  There’s no denying that Buchholz has the talent to make him an outstanding pitcher.  But, it’s been what, five years since he first got his shot at the Red Sox rotation?  At one point is an ERA over 8.00 just not acceptable for a number three starter?  He’s not a rookie, and he’s had plenty of chances to ease in to the big leagues.

Meanwhile, the Daniel Bard Experiment appears to be working out.  Bard, you’ll recall, was the focus of the entire organization’s existential crisis once presumptive closer Andrew Bailey went down with a thumb injury the day before the regular season started.  So far, though, he’s proved an admirable starter, especially for a starter just starting to start.  His 4.38 ERA leads the starting staff, and he’s only allowed one home run so far this year (compare that to Beckett’s seven, for example).  Felix Doubront’s also been a pleasant surprise.  I mean, he’s a fourth starter who has an ERA just over 5.00 and basically always gives the team a chance to hit their way to a win – what else can we really ask for from a pitcher who is just easing his way into the major leagues?

Bullpen: Let’s just get the easy one off the board first.  Remember Mark Melancon, he of the two-inning, eleven run, 49.50 ERA fame?  That was fun, wasn’t it?  Remember how he was the Astros’ closer, and a pretty good one at that, last year?  Remember how he used to pitch for the Yankees here and there, and he was decent?  Yeah.  That was fun.  Remember when people thought maybe he should be the closer, or maybe the eighth inning guy?

Anyway.  So far, Bobby Valentine’s gotten the most work out of Scott Atchison, Matt Albers, Vicente Padilla, and Franklin Morales, followed by Junichi Tazawa (sent down to AAA a few days ago) and Justin Thomas (in Pawtucket following a terrible start and a Rich Hill callup).  Atchison and Albers definitely lead the pack here – Atchison’s logged a 1.88 ERA over 14.1 innings of work, and Albers is close behind with a 1.80 ERA over ten innings.

Now, here’s where things get interesting – Padilla has an 8.00 ERA.  That’s really not good, especially not for a bullpen pitcher who gets regular work.  Morales is better, with a 4.32 ERA; but still, I think we can easily make the point that once we get past the solid Atchison and Albers, hold on to your hats.  And the closer!  Whoo!  Alfredo Aceves had a rough start.  I think that, you probably think that, I’m sure Ace himself thinks that.  We’re reminded that he came to spring training intending to start, found out that he was apparently just a pawn in the Daniel Bard as starter idea, got put in the bullpen, and then ingloriously became the closer when Bailey went down.  Given all that capital-D Drama, Aceves has done all right for himself lately.  He has five saves in seven chances, so he’s getting the job done.  He’ll never make the Hall of Fame for the ninth inning, but it seems like he’s a serviceable option until Bailey gets back.

Offense: The good news is, there are two very bright spots in the Boston offense.  David Ortiz and Ryan Sweeney have been mashing.  Currently, Ortiz is fifth in baseball in batting average (.391), second in doubles (11), sixth in OBP (.441), and fourth in slugging percentage (.707).  Not too bad, big guy.  Sweeney’s seventh in batting average (.361) and first in doubles (12).

After that, the Red Sox regulars seem kind of just that – regular.  Dustin Pedroia’s been getting it done as expected (.294/.339/.471), and unexpected leadoff man Mike Aviles has emerged as a force (.281/.317/.500).  Cody Ross has five home runs, and he’s hit some of them in some pretty clutch situations.

Other than that, there’s really not too much to get excited about so far.  Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s started to turn his early-season black hole around, and he’s currently batting .241.  After the .070 I saw on the Fenway scoreboard with my own eyes, I’ll take a .240 average.  Kevin Youkilis has, it seems, been hurt – he’s on the DL now (hi there, Will Middlebrooks!) with a bad back and a .219 average.  Because he’s hurt, we’ll give Youk a pass.

You know who we can’t really give a pass to?  Adrian Gonzalez.  This guy – with the perfect Fenway swing, the huge contract, the Big Excitement – is hitting .250.  He has a middling five doubles, only two home runs (on pace for what, 12?) and 20 strikeouts.  That’s not very good.  What’s up, Adrian?  Not only is he not getting the big hits we were promised – he’s really not getting any hits.  The offense needs someone else to step up: it can’t rely on an aging Ortiz, a Sweeney who is playing way over his head, and Pedroia and Aviles all year.  It needs a steadying force, and I nominate Gonzalez.

Managing: Bobby Valentine’s been interesting.  He’s no Terry Francona, that’s for sure.  I have to think that the Sox knew what they were getting into with him – a history of poor media relations, disguises in the dugout, of not getting along with some players, and of general non-Titoness.  But, maybe that’s what the Red Sox thought they needed.  And, maybe it’s still what they need.  It remains to be seen.  Bobby’s made some terrible bullpen decisions so far, and he posted a lineup based on a misunderstanding as to whether an opposing pitcher was a lefty or a righty a few games ago, but let’s give him some credit.  He willingly took on a difficult, fractured clubhouse in an intense organization, and he’s doing his best to turn it around.  And, he can’t swing the bat or throw the ball for the players.

Maybe, after all the hype, the big names, the long contracts, maybe this year’s version of the Boston Red Sox just isn’t that good.  Maybe after we look at the statistics, the personalities, the slowly-withering crowds (don’t let the “sellout streak” fool you – as the Globe pointed out this morning, it’s manufactured, and owes a lot to team personnel giving tickets away for free at the last minute), we’re just led to one simple conclusion: this team doesn’t have what it takes.  If it does, it needs to start showing that soon.  As Yogi Berra said, it gets late early out there.  We can look at injuries – sure, a healthy Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford would probably help – but all teams deal with injuries.  It’s only May, but it’s already May.

I mean, it’s true.

The Red Sox offense won its game against the Minnesota Twins last night in the twin cities.  Boston scored seven runs, largely off the bat of Mike Aviles.  Baseball’s newest dynamic leadoff man launched a three-run home run in a four-run second inning, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia chipped in with two RBI of his own in a 1 for 4 day that raised his average to an almost-acceptable .238 – just last week when I went to Fenway, Salty’s average was something like .070, so apparently he’s on quite the hot streak lately.

Clay Buchholz (Keith Allison, c/o flickr.com)

The Red Sox pitching?  Was there, but we probably shouldn’t give it much credit for not blowing a six-run lead.  Starter Clay Buchholz allowed a run in the second, but managed to stay out of trouble until the sixth inning.  After Denard Span hit an RBI double and Buchholz loaded the bases by walking Jamey Carroll, Bobby Valentine pulled Buchholz in favor of Scott Atchison.  Joe Mauer promptly hit a ground ball that hit Atchison and bounded into center field for a two-run single.  Which was enough for Valentine.  Atchison out, Justin Thomas in.  Thomas hung a pitch that Justin Morneau smacked into right field for an RBI double, and then promptly hit Chris Parmelee in the helmet to load the bases again.  Enough.  Thomas out, Matt Albers in.  Albers gave up an RBI single to Trevor Plouffe, bringing the score to 7-6, but also got a GIDP to finally, mercifully end the four-pitcher, five-run inning.

Vicente Padilla and Franklin Morales held down the seventh and eighth innings without much of an issue.  But, BUT – Alfredo Aceves in the ninth could have gotten ugly again, fast.  Aceves walked Plouffe and allowed a single to Ryan Doumit, before hitting number nine hitter Alexi Casilla.  Bases loaded, Denard Span up.  Aceves struck Span out to end the game, but I don’t necessarily take that as a sign of competence, let alone confidence.

When your hitters put up seven runs, and you’re winning by six runs in the sixth inning, you have to win the game.  It’s not as if the score was close, going back and forth, a nailbiter for all nine innings – the bullpen almost coughed this game up.  I have no idea why the headline on the Red Sox website’s recap of this game is “Red Sox ‘pen winning formula to sweep Twins.”  To be fair, the actual recap is less rosy than its headline, but let’s be honest with each other: the Red Sox have a serious issue with their relief pitching.  The occasional good day here, 1-2-3 inning there, save on paper this time, does not diminish the fact that so far, no lead this year has been safe.  Look no farther than last night, look no farther than the nine-run Yankee comeback this weekend.  It also does not diminish the fact that the starting rotation – which is no jewel in the crown itself – must feel tremendous pressure to eat innings, throw quality starts, and go deep into games, if only to keep the bullpen off the mound for as many outs as possible.  That tactic hardly ever works in the short term, and it’s not going to work over the course of an entire long, grueling season.

Aaron Cook’s in Pawtucket, and Rich Hill pitched for the second day in a row in Pawtucket yesterday, so maybe there’s help on the way.  But something needs to change, because this is not going to stand up over the course of any season, let alone one in which the Red Sox hope to win something.

Here’s a link to last night’s box score, courtesy of the Red Sox.

Fresh off their twin city sweep, the Sox head to Chicago, where they’ll take on the White Sox for a four-game set.  Felix Doubront toes up against perfect-game winner Philip Humber at 8:05 eastern time.

Photo by me.

Up until yesterday, I had two very memorable trips to Fenway Park — my first trip in 1978 when I was eight years old. It was a four generation outing with my dad, my grandfather and great grandmother (who was a huge fan!), and the Derek Lowe no-hitter. This one definitely tops the list now.

Becca did such a fantastic job recapping yesterday’s events with some amazing photos (if you missed it, click here) which is great because basically all I did was cry and ended up taking some extremely blurry pictures. It’s hard to  cheer, sob and snap pics all at the same time. What an amazing day! Like the final out of the 2004 World Series, I know I’ll never be able to watch footage from yesterday’s festivities without bursting into tears. It was such an emotional day for all Sox fans. Even the season ticket holder next to me got misty when Nomar walked onto the field. He said to me, “he was worth the price of admission for every game I went to that he played in. Now I’m crying!”

When I arrived for the game yesterday, I had a good feeling about this series with the Yankees. I thought nothing could go wrong — it was a beautiful day, Fenway turned 100 years old and I wasn’t at work — the Sox had to win. But they didn’t. So they’d win the second game, right? Nope. I wish I could’ve had ended today’s game after the 6th inning so I’m breaking this recap into two sections.

PART 1: Innings 1 - 6

For the first six innings of this game, I laid on the couch thinking, “crap, this is how the game should’ve gone yesterday!” Felix Doubront pitched six strong innings, giving up just one run on five hits to a pretty potent Yankees offense. He looked good and his 93 mph fast ball looked effortless. His only mistake was leaving one out over the plate in the top of the 6th for Mark Teixeira to belt over the Green Monster. On the slo-mo replay, you could see Mark’s eyes get real big and I’m sure he was thinking Christmas came early. He struck out seven Yankees and walked just two. At this point, I thought nothing could go wrong.

Even the offense decided to show up today. Almost every batter in the Red Sox lineup had at least one hit — everyone except the 3rd base platoon of Kevin Youkilis, Nate Spears and pinch hitter, Nick Punto. David Ortiz went 4 for 4 with an RBI and raised his average to .436, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia broke out his early season slump going 4 for 5. Both Mike Aviles and Cody Ross had two RBI — Cody’s coming on a monster homerun to straight away center that hit the camera tower. The Red Sox scored two in the first, three in the second, two in the third and two in the fifth and looked to be on their way to breaking their current four-game losing streak leading 9-0 after five innings.

But we all know that any lead against the Yankees is not big enough. In the 6th, Doubront struck out Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez before giving up the four-bagger to Teixeira. Curtis Granderson popped out to short stop to end the inning. Doubront finished the 6th with 99 pitches. I totally expected to see him in the 7th. That was not the case…. hence the second part to this recap.

PART 2: Innings 7 - 9

Vicente Padilla relieved Doubront to start the 7th and struck out Andruw Jones to kick things off. Russell Martin singled to right field and then FOX switched over to the White Sox v. Seattle game for the final three outs of Philip Humber’s perfect game. Now I love to see a perfect game just as much as the next fan but in my opinion, they stuck with the celebration a bit too long for my taste. By the time FOX went back to the Red Sox game, the wheels were starting to fall off the bus. The score, which was 9-1 when they switched coverage, was now 9-5. WTF? Nick Swisher blasted a grand salami to pull the Yankees to within four. And my nails got considerably shorter.

Matt Albers came in to relieve Padilla who couldn’t get the job done, and promptly gave up a three-run shot to Teixeira to bring them within one. And I really started to sweat. This is one of those times being married to a Yankees fan really backfires on me. I may or may not have been nanner-nannering my husband about Freddie Garcia’s stellar 1.2 inning outing. Karma hates me.

Franklin Morales came in to relieve Albers who also stunk it up and got out of the rest of the inning unscathed. In the end, the Yankees scored *cough* seven runs *cough* in the inning so I guess there was some scathing, just not for Morales. I honestly can’t bring myself to give the gory details of the 8th inning without leaping out the second story window of my house so here it is in nutshell. Bobby Valentine brought in Alfredo Aceves for the six out save attempt after Morales gave up a lead off single to left. That didn’t happen, he got the loss. The Yankees scored seven more runs on a lot of hits and a couple of walks and now Red Sox nation is pissed off. The boos for Bobby V. were deafening.

The game lasted 3 hours and 52 minutes. It felt twice that long but I’m sure that had a lot to do with having to listen to Tim McCarver and his butchering of nearly every aspect of the broadcast. If you care to take a gander at the painful box score, here’s the link, courtesy of the Red Sox. The series wraps up Sunday night at 8:05pm with Daniel Bard facing off against CC Sabathia. Surprisingly, right now Bard has a better ERA then Sabathia (4.63 vs. 5.59). Let’s hope we can at least salvage one game of this series.