[MLB]Boston Red Sox Thread

[Tealey7]

To mark the start of the new MLB season, I thought I might as well retry doing this thread. However, I realistically can't promise daily updates about games.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6c/Boston_Red_Sox.png

History

The Boston Red Sox won the first World Series in 1903 against the favored National League team, the Pittsburgh Pirates.In the following decade, the club won four World Series championships in a six-year span despite changing ownership several times. The 1912 and 1915 clubs featured an outfield considered to be among the finest in the game: Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper and Duffy Lewis, as well as superstar pitcher Smokey Joe Wood. The Sox won the Fall Classic both years.

The Red Sox were owned by Joseph Lannin from 1913 to 1916, who signed Babe Ruth, commonly seen as the best player in baseball history. In 1919, the team's new owner, Harry Frazee, sold Ruth to the New York Yankees. Legend has it that he did so in order to finance a Broadway play No, No Nanette starring 'a friend', but the play actually did not open on Broadway until 1925. Rather, the Red Sox, White Sox and Yankees had a detente, the teams being referred to as the "Insurrectos," whose actions antagonized then AL president Ban Johnson. Alhough Frazee owned the Boston Red Sox franchise, he did not own Fenway Park (this was owned by the Fenway Park Trust), making his ownership a precarious one — Johnson could move another team into Fenway Park in Boston. Despite the fact Ruth held the single season homerun record (hitting 29 in 1919[1]), Frazee sold Ruth because he needed the money to purchase Fenway Park (which he did in 1920), the Red Sox franchise was in serious debt, Ruth was a serious disciplinary problem (and continued to be one in New York), and letting the Yankees have a box office attraction would help the then mediocre Yankees, who had sided with Frazee in conflicts with "the Loyal Five" other AL teams and Ban Johnson[2]. The contract was a straight sale; the Red Sox got no players in return. This transaction would later become the source of the Curse of the Bambino legend, which suggested that the club was doomed to years of futility as a result of the trade. Frazee also unloaded a number of other Hall of Fame quality players to the Yankees for other reasons. Carl Mays quit the team in mid-game and refused to return; his trade was essentially a salvage operation. Other Frazee-era players went to New York as part of Frazee's financial strategy after he decided to leave baseball, having been driven out by Ban Johnson, including Sad Sam Jones and Waite Hoyt. These players (some of them Hall of Fame members) formed the nucleus of the first championship Yankee teams of the 1920s.


The Ted Williams Era

Ted Williams & Tom YawkeyThe Red Sox were purchased in 1933 by a wealthy, shy young man named Tom Yawkey who began pumping money into the team. In 1939, the Red Sox purchased the contract of outfielder Ted Williams, then playing in the Pacific Coast League, ushering in an era of the team sometimes called the "Ted Sox". Williams was perhaps the most obsessive hitter in baseball history, and is generally considered the greatest hitter of all time because of his ability to hit for both power and average. Stories of his being able to hold a bat in his hand and correctly estimate its weight down to the ounce have floated around baseball circles for decades. Science of Hitting, his book on the subject, is considered by some as a bible of hitting theory and science. He is also the last player to hit over .400 for a full season, which he did in 1941.

With Williams, the Red Sox went to the World Series in 1946, but lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games, in part because of the use of the "Williams Shift", in which the shortstop would move to the right side of the infield to make it harder for the left-handed-hitting Williams to hit to that side of the field. Some have claimed that Williams was too proud to hit to the other side of the field, not wanting to let the Cardinals take away his game. He did not hit well in the Series, gathering only five singles in 25 at-bats, for a .200 average. However, his performance may have also been influenced by an elbow injury he had received a few days before when he walalalala by a pitch in an exhibition game. In any case, 1946 would be the only year that Williams would play in a World Series.

The Red Sox featured several other very good players during the 1940s, including SS Johnny Pesky (for whom the right field foul pole in Fenway - "Pesky's Pole" - is named), 2B Bobby Doerr, and CF Dom DiMaggio (brother of Joe). Despite this, they lost the pennant by one game in 1948 (losing a one-game playoff to the Indians, the first in American League history) and 1949 (losing the final two games of the season to the Yankees).

The 1950s were a lean time for the Red Sox. After Williams returned from the Korean War, many of the best players from the late 1940s had retired or been traded. The stark contrast in the team led critics to call the Red Sox' daily lineup "Ted Williams and the Seven Dwarfs". Also, unlike many other teams, they refused to sign black players, even passing up chances at future Hall-of-Famers Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays, both of whom tried out for Boston and were highly praised by team scouts. Ted Williamlalalala .388 at the age of 38 in 1957, but there was little else for Boston fans to root for. Williams retired at the end of the 1960 season, famously hitting a home run in his final at-bat. The Sox finally became the last Major League team to sign an African American player when they signed modest infielder Pumpsie Green in 1959.

Supposedly the right-field bullpens in Fenway Park were built in part for Williams' left-handed swing, and are sometimes called "Williamsburg".


Carl "Yaz" Yastrzemski and the Impossible Dream

The 1960s also started poorly for the Red Sox, though 1961 saw the debut of Carl "Yaz" Yastrzemski, who would become one of the best hitters of the pitching-rich decade.

Red Sox fans recollect 1967 as the year of the "Impossible Dream." The slogan refers to the hit song from the popular musical play "Man of La Mancha." The team had finished the 1966 season in ninth place, but they found new life with Yastrzemski leading the team to the World Series. Yastrzemski won the American League Triple Crown and put on one of the greatest displays of hitting down the stretch in baseball history. But the Red Sox lost the series - again to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. The 1967 season is remembered as one of the great pennant races in baseball history because four teams were in the AL pennant race until almost the last game.

Although the Red Sox would be competitive for much of the next seven seasons, they never finished higher than second. The closest they came to a divisional title was 1972, when oddly they lost by a half-game to the Detroit Tigers. The start of the season was delayed by a players' strike, and the Red Sox further lost a game to a rainout that was never ordered to be replayed, which caused the Red Sox to lose the division by a half-game.

The Red Sox won the AL pennant in 1975, with Yastrzemski surrounded by other stars such as rookie outfielders Jim Rice and Fred Lynn (who won both the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP awards), veteran outfielder Dwight Evans, catcher Carlton Fisk, and pitchers Luis Tiant and eccentric junkballer Bill Lee. In the playoffs, the Sox swept Catfish Hunter and the Oakland A's in three games.

Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, against the Cincinnati Reds' "Big Red Machine," is regarded by many as the greatest game in baseball postseason history. It was an extra-inning drama that featured dramatic home runs by Bernie Carbo and Fisk (the latter was the famous, game-winning "body English" homerun), as well as a sensational game-saving catch by Dwight Evans. Despite the series-tying win, the Red Sox lost Game 7, and this time it would be Yaz who never again played in a World Series.

In 1978, the Red Sox and the Yankees were involved in one of the most memorable pennant races in baseball history. Despite being 14 1/2 games behind the Red Sox in July, on September 10th, after completing a 4-game sweep of the Red Sox, the Yankees pulled into a tie for the divisional lead.

For the final three weeks of the season, the teams fought closely and exchanged the lead frequently. By the final day of the season, the Yankees' magic number to win the division was one - that is, either a win over Cleveland or a Boston loss to Toronto would clinch the division for the Yankees. However, New York lost 9-2 and Boston won 5-1, forcing a one-game playoff to be held at Fenway Park on Monday, October 2nd.

Although most people remember Bucky Dent's three-run home run in the 7th inning off Mike Torrez just over the Green Monster which gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead, it was Reggie Jackson's solo home run in the 8th that proved the difference in what would be a 5-4 Yankee win, which ended with Yastrzemski popping out to third base with Rick Burleson representing the tying run at third.


The '86 World Series and Morgan's Magic

After the 1978 playoff, the Red Sox wouldn't reach the postseason for the next seven years, finishing no higher than third during this period. Yastrzemski retired after the 1983 season in which the Red Sox finished sixth in the seven-team AL East, posting their worst record since 1966.

However, the team's fortunes changed in 1986. While its offense had remained strong with the likes of Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, Don Baylor, and future Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, the team had always lacked an ace pitcher to lead the staff. That season Roger Clemens stepped into that role, posting a 24-4 record with a 2.48 ERA to win both the American League Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards, marking the first time a starting pitcher swept those two awards since Vida Blue was named MVP in 1971. The Red Sox won the AL East for the first time in eleven seasons, drawing the California Angels in the AL Championship Series.

The Series started badly for the Red Sox. The teams split the first two games in Boston, but the Angels won the next two games at home, taking a 3-1 Series lead. As California looked to close out the series with a Game Five win, things looked grim for the Sox, who trailed 5-2 heading into the ninth inning. It was then that the Red Sox started their comeback, which turned the tide of the entire series. A two-run homer by Baylor cut the lead to one; then, with two outs and a runner on, and one strike away from elimination, Dave Henderson homered off Donnie Moore to put Boston up 6-5. Although the Angels tied the game in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Red Sox won in the eleventh on a Henderson sacrifice fly off Moore. Boston cruised to six and seven run wins at Fenway Park in Games Six and Seven to win the American League title for the first time since 1975. The Red Sox' win in Game Seven was the first Game Seven playoff win in the team's history.

The Red Sox faced the New York Mets in the 1986 World Series. Boston got off to a great start, winning the first two games in Shea Stadium, only to lose the next two at Fenway, evening the series at two games apiece. After a Game 5 win in Boston, the Red Sox returned to Flushing Meadows looking to wrap up their first championship in 68 years. However, Game Six would go down as one of the most devastating losses in club history. After a strong outing by Clemens, the Mets tied the game 3-3 in the eighth by scoring a run off reliever Calvin Schiraldi. The game went to extra innings, where the Red Sox took a 5-3 lead in the top of the tenth. After two quick outs, the Red Sox stood just one out away from breaking their championship drought. However, things then went terribly wrong, culminating in one of the most infamous moments in major league history. After three straight singles and a wild pitch by Bob Stanley, the Mets tied the game at five. Although it looked like the Red Sox might have been able to extend the game when Mookie Wilson hit a slow ground ball to first baseman Bill Buckner for what would have been the final out of the inning, the ball rolled through Buckner's legs, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run from third. While Buckner was singled out as the biggest goat, many observers - as well as both Wilson and Buckner - have noted that, even if Buckner had fielded the ball cleanly, Wilson most likely would still have been safe, leaving the game-winning run at third with two out. The Red Sox would go on to lose Game Seven, concluding the devastating collapse and feeding the myth that the club actually was "cursed."

The Red Sox next returned to the postseason in 1988. With the club in fourth place, manager John McNamara was fired and replaced by Joe Morgan. Immediately the club won 12 games in a row, and 19 of 20 overall, to surge to the AL East title in what would be referred to as Morgan's Magic. But the magic was short-lived, as the team was swept by the Oakland Athletics in the ALCS. Ironically, the MVP of that Series was former Red Sox pitcher Dennis Eckersley, who saved all four wins for Oakland. Two years later, in 1990, the Red Sox would again win the division and face the Athletics in the ALCS. However, the outcome was the same, with the A's sweeping the Series in four games.


After the Yawkeys

Tom Yawkey died in 1976, and his wife Jean took control of the team until her death in 1992. A trust controlled by John Harrington took control of the team, ending over 60 years of Yawkey ownership. The initials of Jean and Tom Yawkey are displayed in Morse Code on the Green Monster scoreboard as a tribute.

Longtime Sox general manager Lou Gorman was replaced in 1994 by Dan Duquette, a Massachusetts native who had previously run the Montreal Expos. Duquette's reign began with promises to revive the flagging Sox farm system, and in fact Duquette did have some degree of success in building that area: during his tenure the farm system produced several quality players including Trot Nixon and Nomar Garciaparra. In addition, unlike previous management, Duquette was unafraid to grant huge contracts to major stars, most famously the eight-year, $160 million deal given to Manny Ramírez after the 2001 season - which was the first high-profile open market free agent signing by the Red Sox.

Duquette caused much angst amongst Red Sox fans with many of his personnel moves, most notably allowing beloved players Roger Clemens and Mo Vaughn to leave as free agents. Although the very popular Vaughn's departure was widely decried by Red Sox fans at the time, Vaughn (who won the AL MVP in 1995) accomplished very little after leaving Boston, and was eventually forced to retire in 2003 due to various injuries. However, Duquette also allowed Clemens to leave Boston after the 1996 season, saying that Clemens was "in the twilight of his career." After leaving Boston, Clemens went on to win four more Cy Young awards (two with the Blue Jays, one with the Yankees, and one with the Houston Astros), as well as two World Championships with the arch-rival Yankees. Duquette was roundly criticized for allowing Clemens to leave in the wake of Clemens' post-Boston successes, even though Clemens had been troubled with serious injuries, weight problems, and bouts of ineffectiveness that resulted in a personal record of 40 wins and 39 losses over his last four seasons with the Red Sox.

Duquette's abrasive manner and tendency to micromanage off-the-field issues also resulted in the Red Sox suffering a public relationlalalala. In 1999, Duquette called Fenway Park "economically obsolete" and, along with Red Sox ownership, led a push for a brand new stadium to be built near the current stadium. Despite the approval of a grant by the Massachusetts Legislature and key political support, issues with buying out neighboring property and steadfast opposition within Boston's city council eventually doomed the project. Duquette was also infamously involved with a crackdown on independent sausage vendors selling outside of Fenway Park before games, which had been a tradition outside of Fenway Park since it opened in 1912 - an issue that was settled amicably in 2002, when the Red Sox agreed to let peanut and sausage vendors operate all around Fenway Park in exchange for the vendors' support for a plan to extend the ballpark's concourse onto Yawkey Way.

On the field, the Red Sox had some success during this period, but were unable to return to the World Series. In the strike-shortened 1995 season, the Sox won the newly-realigned American League East, finishing seven games ahead of the Yankees. However, they were swept in three games by the Cleveland Indians, running their postseason losing streak to 13 games, dating back to the 1986 World Series.

In 1998, the Red Sox dealt young pitchers Tony Armas, Jr. and Carl Pavano to the Montreal Expos in exchange for star pitcher Pedro Martínez, who went on to have several spectacular seasons for the Red Sox. Later that season the team won the Wild Card, but again lost the American League Division Series to the Indians. This time they lost the series 3-1 despite winning Game One 11-3 behind Martinez.

In 1999 the Red Sox got revenge on the Indians. Cleveland took a 2-0 series lead, but Boston staged an improbable comeback, winning the next three games thanks to the strong pitching of Derek Lowe, Pedro Martínez and his older brother Ramón. The series featured several memorable games. Game Four's 23-7 win by the Red Sox was the highest scoring playoff game in history. Game Five was a tense affair, with the Indians taking a 5-2 lead after two innings, but Pedro Martínez, nursing a shoulder injury, came on in the fourth inning and pitched six innings of no-hit ball while the offense rallied for a 12-8 win behind two home runs from Troy O'Leary. The Red Sox then met the Yankees in the American League Championship Series, but came up short, losing the series four games to one.


New Ownership, New Era

In 2002, the Red Sox were sold by president and Yawkey trustee John Harrington to a consortium headed by principal owner John Henry with Tom Werner serving as executive chairman and Larry Lucchino serving as president and CEO. Dan Duquette was fired on February 28 and, while former Angels general manager Mike Port served as interim-GM in 2002, he was eventually replaced by Yale graduate Theo Epstein after Oakland's Billy Beane turned down the position. Epstein, who at age 28 became the youngest general manager in the history of the Major Leagues at that time, grew up in nearby Brookline rooting for the Red Sox.

Hopes ran high in the 2003 season, but the postseason would deliver yet another blow to Red Sox fans. The Sox rallied from a 2-0 deficit against the Oakland Athletics to win the best-of-five American League Division Series. Game Five was especially dramatic, with Derek Lowe saving a 4-3 victory by striking out the A's Terrence Long with the tying run on third base. They then faced the Yankees in the 2003 American League Championship Series. In the deciding seventh game, Boston led 5-2 in the eighth inning, but Pedro Martínez allowed three runs to tie the game, including a two-run double by Jorge Posada. The Red Sox could not score off of Mariano Rivera over the last three innings and lost the game 6-5 on a home run by Yankee third baseman Aaron Boone off of Tim Wakefield's first pitch of the 11th inning.

Many Red Sox fans blamed the loss on their manager, Grady Little, for not removing Martínez after seven strong innings, when he began to show signs of tiring. It was viewed as the culmination of two years of questionable decision-making by Little, and shortly after the ALCS Little was fired. He would be replaced by Terry Francona, who would lead the Red Sox to not only some of the greatest moments in the franchise's history, but an epic comeback unprecedented in baseball history.


The 2004 World Series Championship

During the 2003-04 offseason, the Red Sox acquired another ace pitcher in Curt Schilling and a closer in Keith Foulke to bolster the pitching staff. Expectations once again ran high that 2004 would finally be the year that the Red Sox ended their championship drought. The regular season did not start well, and through midseason the team had struggled mightily, falling more than ten games behind New York. Management shook up the team at the MLB trading deadline July 31 when they traded the team's popular yet often hurt and disgruntled shortstop Nomar Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs, getting Orlando Cabrera of the Montreal Expos and Doug Mientkiewicz of the Minnesota Twins in return. In a separate transaction, the Red Sox also traded AAA outfielder Henri Stanley to the Los Angeles Dodgers for speedy centerfielder Dave Roberts. The club would turn things around soon after, going on to finish within three games of the Yankees in the AL East and qualifying for the playoffs as the AL Wild Card. Players and fans affectionately referred to the players as "The Idiots," a term coined by Johnny Damon and Kevin Millar during the playoff push to describe the team's eclectic roster and devil-may-care attitude toward the supposed "Curse of the Bambino."

Boston began the playoffs by sweeping the AL West champion Anaheim Angels. The Red Sox blew out the Angels 9-3 in Game 1, scoring 7 of those runs in the fourth inning. However, the Sox' 2003 offseason prize pickup Curt Schilling suffered a torn tendon while running to first base to retire a batter. The second game, pitched by Pedro Martinez, stayed close throughout until Boston scored 4 in the ninth to win 8-3. In game three, what looked to be a blowout turned out to be a nail-biter, as Vladimir Guerrero hit a grand slam to tie it at six. However, David Ortiz, who is noted for his clutchness, delivered in the 10th inning with a game winning 2-run homer over the Green Monster. The Red Sox thus advanced to a rematch in the 2004 American League Championship Series against their bitter rivals, the New York Yankees.

Despite high hopes that the Red Sox would finally vanquish their nemesis, the series started disastrously for them. Curt Schilling pitched with the torn tendon sheath in his right ankle he had suffered in Game One of the Divisional Series against Anaheim, and was routed for six runs in three innings. Mussina had six perfect innings, and once had a lead that was 8-0. Despite the Sox' best effort to come back (they had scored seven unanswered runs to make it 8-7), they ended up losing 10-7. In Game Two, after trailing 1-0 throughout most of the game, John Olerud hit a 2-run home run to put the Yankees up for good. They were down three games to none after a crushing 19-8 loss in Game Three, in which the two clubs set the record for most runs scored in a League Championship Series game.

In Game Four of the Series, the Red Sox found themselves facing elimination, trailing 4-3 in the ninth with Yankees superstar closer Mariano Rivera on the mound. After Rivera issued a walk to Kevin Millar, Dave Roberts came on to pinch run and promptly stole second base. He then scored on an RBI single by Bill Mueller which sent the game to extra innings. The Red Sox went on to win the game on a two-run home run by David Ortiz in the 12th inning. The Red Sox would win Game Five the next night, in a game that featured another rally against Rivera to force extra innings. In Game 5, the Red Sox were down again late, this time by the score of 4-2, thanks to Derek Jeter's bases-clearing double. But the Sox struck back in the 8th, as "Senor Octubre" hit a homer over the monster to bring the Sox within a run. Jason Varitek hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Dave Roberts to score the tying run. The game would go for fourteen innings, capped off by many squandered Yankee opportunities (they were 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position). In the top of the 13th, though, Jason Varitek came in to catch the knucleballing Tim Wakefield. It was a very sloppy inning, in which at one point the Yankees had runners on second and third. The nation was spared though, as Varitek and Wakefield were able to get through the inning unscathed. In the bottom of the 14th, Ortiz would again seal the win with a game-winning RBI single that brought home Damon. The game set the record for longest postseason game in terms of time (5 hours and 49 minutes) and for longest ALCS game (14 innings).

With the series returning to Yankee Stadium for Game Six, the improbable comeback continued with Curt Schilling pitching on an ankle that had three sutures wrapped in a bloody (literally red) sock. Schilling struck out four, walked none, and only allowed one run over seven innings to lead the team to victory. Mark Bellhorn also helped in the effort as he hit a 3-run home run in the fourth inning. A key play in came in the bottom of the eighth inning with Derek Jeter on first and Alex Rodriguez facing Bronson Arroyo. Rodriguez hit a ground ball down the first base line and Arroyo fielded it and reached out to tag him as he raced down the line. Rodriguez slapped at the ball and it came loose, rolling down the line. Jeter scored and Rodriguez ended up on second. After conferring, however, the umpires called Rodriguez out on interference and returned Jeter to first base. The bottom of the 9th inning in that game was one of the most terrifying moments in the postseason, as Tony Clark, who had played extremely poorly for the Sox in '02 came up to the dish representing the winning run. This was extremely nerveracking for a lot of Sox fans, and as Theo Epstein put it: "He ruined our 2002 season and it looked like he'd probably ruin our 2004 one." In Game Seven, the Red Sox completed their sensational and historic comeback on the strength of Derek Lowe's pitching and Johnny Damon's two home runs, including a devastating grand slam in the second inning off the first pitch of reliever Javier Vasquez. Ortiz, who had the game winning RBIs in Games Four and Five, was named ALCS Most Valuable Player. Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League are the three professional sports that feature best-of-7 games series in their playoffs. The incredible feat of coming back to win a 7 game series when down by three games has only been accomplished by three teams in the history of the MLB, NBA, and NHL. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL) came back from being down by 3 games to the Detriot Red Wings to win the 1942 Stanley Cup. The 1975 New York Islanders (NHL) did the same when they came back to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1975 Stanley Cup Quarterfinals. No team in the NBA has ever accomplished such a comeback and the Boston Red Sox are the only team in Major League Baseball history to ever do so. The 2004 American League Championship Series marks easily and without a doubt the greatest comeback in baseball history.

The Red Sox faced the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004 World Series. The Cardinals had posted the best record in the major leagues that season, and had previously defeated the Red Sox in the 1946 and 1967 Series, with both series going seven games. The third time would be the charm, however, as the momentum and confidence Boston had built up in the ALCS would overwhelm St. Louis. The Red Sox began the Series with an 11-9 win, marked by Mark Bellhorn's game-winning home-run off of Pesky's Pole. It was the highest scoring World Series opening game ever (breaking the previous record set in 1932). The Red Sox would go on to win Game 2 in Boston (thanks to another sensational performance by the bloody-socked Schilling). The Red Sox won both these games despite making 4 errors in each game. In Game Three, Pedro Martinez shut out the Cardinals for seven innings. The Cardinals only made one real threat- in the third inning when they put runners on second and third with no outs. However, the Cardinals' "rally" was killed by Jeff Suppan's horrendous baserunning gaffe, in which he tried to go home on a routine out and ended up getting run down at third. The Red Sox needed one more game to win their first championship since the 1918. In Game four, the Red Sox did not allow a run, as Edgar Renteria (who would become the 2005 Red Sox starting lalalala the ball back to Keith Foulke. This was the second time that Renteria had ended a world series, as he won it for the Marlins 7 years prior in the 1997 World Series. After Foulke lobbed the ball to Doug Mientkiewicz, the Sox had officially won their first World Championship in 86 years. The Sox held the Redbird's offense (the best in the NL in 2004) to only three runs in the last three games. The Red Sox never trailed in the series. Manny Ramírez was named World Series MVP. The Red Sox won Game 4 of the series on October 27, eighteen years to the day from when they lost to the New York Mets in the 1986 World Series.

The Red Sox held a parade (or as Boston mayor Thomas Menino put it, a "rolling rally") on Saturday, October 30, 2004. A crowd of more than three million members of Red Sox Nation filled the streets of Boston to cheer as the team rode on the city's famous Duck Boats.


2005

After winning its first World Series in 86 years, Red Sox management was left with the challenge of dealing with a number of high profile free agents. Pedro Martínez, Derek Lowe, and Orlando Cabrera were replaced with David Wells, a former Yankee, Matt Clement, and Edgar Rentería respectively. The club re-signed its catcher, Jason Varitek, and named him team captain.

Pitchers Curt Schilling, Keith Foulke, and Wade Miller spent large parts of the season on the disabled list, and were unable to return in good form. For much of the season Boston held first place in the AL East but down the stretch the team struggled, squandering its lead over the Yankees and allowing the Cleveland Indians to close the gap in the Wild Card race.

The division crown would be decided on the last weekend of the season, with the Yankees coming to Fenway Park with a one game lead in the standings. Although the Red Sox won two of the three games to finish the season with an identical 95-67 record as the Yankees, a one-game playoff was not needed since both teams had already qualified for the playoffs. The division title was decided on a head-to-head tiebreaker which the Yankees won 10–9, earning them the AL East championships while the Sox earned the AL Wild Card.

The Red Sox faced the AL Central champion Chicago White Sox, who had not won a playoff series since 1917, in the ALDS. The White Sox won Game One in a 14–2 rout. In the second game, the Red Sox led 4–0, but lost the game 5–4 after a brutal fifth inning which featured a crucial error by second baseman Tony Graffanino. Game Three in Boston ended 5–3 in favor of Chicago, thus completing the sweep. Chicago would go on to win the World Series, their first championship since 1917.

On October 31, 2005, general manager Theo Epstein resigned on the last day of his contract, reportedly turning down a three-year, $4.5 million contract extension.

On Thanksgiving evening, the Red Sox officially announced the acquisition of a potential ace in right-hander pitcher Josh Beckett from the Florida Marlins. Boston also added Gold Glove Award winning third baseman Mike Lowell and right-handed reliever Guillermo Mota in the deal while sending minor league prospects shortstop Hanley Ramírez and right-handed pitchers Aníbal Sánchez, Jesús Delgado and Harvey García to the Marlins. On December 7, the Sox traded backup catcher Doug Mirabelli to the San Diego Padres for second baseman Mark Loretta. On December 8, the Sox traded Edgar Renteria to the Atlanta Braves for third base prospect Andy Marte. On December 20, Tony Graffanino accepted the Red Sox arbitration offer, but Johnny Damon declined, giving himself until January 8 to re-sign with the Red Sox. This deadline became moot, as just days after Damon signed a four-year, $52 million deal with the New York Yankees. The Red Sox lost Bill Mueller in free agency to the Dodgers, and Kevin Millar was not offered arbitration and signed with the Baltimore Orioles.

Cool Sox Facts

Founded: 1899, as the Buffalo franchise in the minor Western League. Moved to
Boston when that league became the major American League in 1901.

Team Name: Boston Red Sox

Name in Spanish: Los Medias Rojas

Current ownership: John Henry and Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino, who paid $660 million and assumed $400 million in debt, in February 2002. The purchase includes Fenway Park and 82 percent of New England Sports Network. The purchase price set a record for a major league baseball franchise.

Current payroll: For 2005, payroll was about $123.5 million, over $80 million less than that of the New York Yankees. For 2004, payroll was about $127 million, $57 million shy of the New York Yankees. In both of these years, the Red Sox had the second-highest total payroll in MLB.[3] (NOTE: The numbers cited are actually the payroll of the team at the start of the each seaons. Payrolls can change due to mid-season personel changes, including trades, promotion of minor league players, waiver, etc.)

Home ballpark: Fenway Park (April 20, 1912 - Present), Braves Field (1929 - 1932 Sundays, 1915 - 1916 World Series), Huntington Avenue Grounds (1901-1911). Fenway is the oldest ballpark in baseball. The Red Sox ownership group has recently committed to keeping the team at Fenway for years to come; plans are already under way for the first ballpark centennial celebration in MLB history in 2012.

Mascot: "Wally the Green Monster," named after the left field wall Green Monster.

Uniform colors: Navy blue, red, gray, and white

Logo design: Two hanging red socks with white heels and toes, over a white baseball surrounded by the words Boston and Red Sox. The word "Boston" is in navy blue outlined in red, the words "Red Sox" are in red outlined in navy blue, and the entire logo is surrounded by a thick red circle. Recently the team has begun phasing in a new logo that removes the outline, text and baseball, leaving only the pair of red socks.

Theme Song: None officially, but several "unofficial" theme songs exist:
played in the middle of the eighth inning at Fenway Park: Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" performed with raucous audience participation.
played after each victory at Fenway Park: "Dirty Water" by The Standells.
played after "Dirty Water" and for rallies during a game: The Dropkick Murphys' 2004 rewrite of "Tessie." The original "Tessie" was a Broadway tune, which Boston fans adopted during the 1903 World Series and sang regularly until 1916.
played during David Ortiz's at-bats: "Who's Your Papi?"

Playoff appearances (1: 1903, 1904, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1946, 1967, 1975, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005

Official television station: New England Sports Network (NESN) Red Sox own 80% of NESN, the Boston Bruins own the remaining 20%
Official radio station: WEEI (flagship)

Uniforms

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6b/Al_2005_boston_01.gif

[Tealey7]

Ballparks

Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds (1901-1911)

Huntington Avenue American League Base Ball Grounds is the full name of a baseball stadium that formerly stood in Boston, Massachusetts. Home to the Boston Red Sox (known simply as 'Boston', or the 'Boston Americans' before 190 from 1901-1911, the stadium sat 11,500. The stadium was located across the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad tracks from the South End Grounds, home of the Boston Braves.

The stadium was the site of the first World Series game in 1903, and also saw the first perfect game in the modern era, thrown by Cy Young on May 5, 1904. The playing field was fairly large by modern standards. Sources say that it was 350 feet to left field, 440 feet to left center field, 530 feet to center field in 1901 and 635 feet to center field in 1908, and 280 feet to right field in 1901 and 320 feet to right field in 1908. The field had many quirks not seen in modern baseball stadiums, including patches of sand in the outfield where grass would not grow, and a tool shed in deep center field that was actually in play.

The Huntington Avenue Grounds was demolished after the Red Sox left at the beginning of the 1912 season to play at Fenway Park. Solomon Court at Cabot Center, an indoor athletic venue belonging to Northeastern University, now stands on the site. A plaque and a statue of Cy Young commemorate the history of this ballpark in what is now called World Series Way.


Fenway Park (1912-)

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Historically, Fenway Park has been decidedly unfriendly to left-handed pitchers. Babe Ruth is one of the few southpaw hurlers who found success there. Ruth started his career as a pitcher (mostly during the "dead-ball era",) and had a career record of 92 wins, 44 losses. Ruth also set a World Series record by pitching 29 2/3 scoreless innings, a record that lasted until broken by Whitey Ford of the New York Yankees in 1961.

Fenway Park is one of the few remaining classic parks in major league baseball to have a significant number of obstructed view seats. These are sold as such, and are a reminder of an era of less commercially-driven ballparks.


"The Green Monster"

The stadium is most famous for the left field wall called "Green Monster". Constructed in 1934, the 37-foot (11.3 m) high wall is 240 feet long, has a 22-foot deep foundation, and was constructed from 30,000 pounds of Toncan iron. Previously, a 23-1/2-foot tall screen protected cars and pedestrians on Lansdowne Street. However, the screen was replaced with more seating atop the Green Monster (in an attempt to fit as many seats as possible in Fenway).

The wall measures only 310 feet (94.5 m) from home plate down the left field line (See Duffy's Cliff). See comments below about the original measurement.

During the 1934 remodeling, the left-field scoreboard was added, and is one of two remaining original manual scoreboards in professional baseball (the other being at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois). Running vertically down the scoreboard, between the columns of out-of-town scores, are the initials "TAY" and "JRY" displayed in Morse code; a memorial to former Red Sox owners Thomas A. Yawkey and Jean R. Yawkey.

In 1947, advertisements covering the left field wall were painted over using green paint, which gave rise to the "Green Monster" moniker. Prior advertisements were: the Calvert Brewery's owl mascot ("Be Wise",) Gem razor blades ("Avoid 5 O'Clock Shadow",) Lifebuoy soap ("The Red Sox Use It!",) and Vimms vitamins ("Get that Vimms Feeling!")

In 1975, the wall was remodeled and an electronic scoreboard installed, and manual scoreboard changed to only show out-of-town scores from other American League games. In 1976, the tin panels in the wall were replaced by a Formica-type panel which resulted in more consistent caroms and less noise when balllalalala the wall. In 2003, National League scores returned; American League East division standings were first displayed in 2005. Additionally, advertisements returned to the Green Monster, most notably for Volvo and W.B. Mason.


"The Triangle"

"The Triangle" is a region of center field where the walls form a triangle 420 feet (128 m) from home plate. That deep right-center point is conventionally given as the center field distance.


"Williamsburg"

"Williamsburg", dubbed by sportswriters, is the bullpens built in front of the right-center field bleachers in 1940 for the benefit of Ted Williams. The name parodied Yankee Stadium's right field area that was often called "Ruthville".


The Lone Red Seat

The lone red seat in the right field bleachers (Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21), signifies the spot where the longest measurable home run ever hit inside Fenway Park landed. Ted Williamlalalala the home run on June 9, 1946 off Fred Hutchinson of the Detroit Tigers. Williams' bomb was officially measured at 502 feet (153 m) -- well beyond "Williamsburg." Tour guides at Fenway Park claim that the man sitting in the seat was a fan of the opposing team -- and did not see the ball coming. As a result, he walalalala in the face. Supposedly, the next morning, a Boston paper ran the headline "Bullseye!" Since the lone red seat out in right field has been dedicated to Ted Williams, it has never been sold as a seat for a Red Sox game.


"The Belly"

"The Belly", is the sweeping curve of the box-seat railing from the right end of "Williamsburg" around to the right field corner. The box seats were added when the bullpens were built, and they cut the 1934 remodeling's right field line distance by some 30 feet.


"Pesky's Pole"

Pesky's Pole is the name for the pole on the right field foul line. The pole was named after Johnny Pesky, a light-hitting shortstop for the Red Sox, who hit some of his six home runs at Fenway Park around the pole and off the pole (a mere 302 feet from home plate). Pesky and the Red Sox attribute pitcher Mel Parnell with coining the name. The most notable for Pesky is a two-run homer in the eighth inning of the 1946 Opening Day game to win the game. (In his career, Pesky hit 17 home runs.) In similar fashion, Mark Bellhorn hit what proved to be the game-winning home run in Game 1 of the 2004 World Series off that pole's screen.


"Pudge’s Pole"

Carleton (Pudge) Fisk’s Foul Pole is the official name for the pole on the left field foul line atop "The Green Monster". In a ceremony before the Boston Red Sox's 2005 interleague game against the Cincinnati Reds, the pole was named in honor of catcher Carlton Fisk, who provided one of baseball's most enduring moments in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series against the Reds. Fisk also received an honorary World Series ring from the 2004 season during the ceremony. Facing Reds right-hander Pat Darcy in the 12th inning with the score knotted 6-6, Fisk launched a pitch down the left field line. It appeared to be heading foul, but Fisk, after initially appearing unsure of whether or not to continue running to first base, famously jumped and waved his arms as if to somehow will the ball fair. It ricocheted off the foul pole, winning the game for the Red Sox and sending the series to a seventh and deciding game the next night, which was won by Cincinnati.


"Duffy's Cliff"

From 1912 to 1933, there was a 10-foot (3 m)-high mound that formed an incline in front of the left field wall at Fenway park, extending from the left-field foul pole to the center field flag pole. As a result of the mound, a left fielder in Fenway Park had to play part of the territory running uphill (and back down). Boston's first star left fielder, Duffy Lewis, mastered the skill so well that the area became known as "Duffy's Cliff".

The mound served two purposes: 1) it was a support for a high wall; and 2) it was built to compensate for the difference in grades between the field and the street on the other side of that wall. It also served as a spectator-friendly seating area during the dead-ball era when overflow crowds would sit on the mound behind ropes. It is often compared to the infamous left field "terrace" at Cincinnati's Crosley Field, but, in truth, the 15-degree all-grass incline there served an entirely different purpose: as an alternative to an all dirt warning track found in most other ballparks. It was a natural feature of the site on which Crosley Field and its predecessors were located; slightly less severe inclines were deliberately built in center and right fields to compensate.

As part of the 1934 remodeling of the ballpark, the bleachers and the wall itself, Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey arranged to flatten the ground along the base of the wall, so that Duffy's Cliff no longer existed, and thus became part of the lore of Fenway Park. Thus the base of the left field wall is several feet below the grade level of Lansdowne Street, accounting for the occasional rat that might spook the scoreboard operators. ("The Fenway Project", ISBN 1579400914.)

For decades there was considerable debate about the true left field distance, which was posted as 315 feet (96 m). For years, Red Sox officials refused to remeasure the distance. Reportedly, the Boston Globe was able to sneak into Fenway Park and remeasure the line. When the paper's evidence was presented to the club in 1995, the line was finally remeasured by the Red Sox and truly restated at 310 feet (94.5 m). The companion 96 meters sign remained unchanged, until 1998, when it was finally corrected to 94.5 meters. A theory about the incorrect foul line distance is the former 315 ft (96 m) measurement came from the Duffy's Cliff days. That measurement likely included the severity of the incline, and when the mound was leveled, the distance was never corrected. A quick study of the geometry of "Duffy's Cliff" suggests that the theory has merit. Regardless of the posted distance, frustrated pitchers will always argue that "The Green Monster" is closer than the sign says.


The ".406 Club" (formerly, "The 600 Club")

In 1983 private suites were added to the roof behind home plate. In 1988, 610 stadium club seats enclosed in glass and named the "600 Club", were added above the home plate bandstand, replacing the existing press box. The press box was then added to the top of the 600 Club. The 1988 addition is largely credited with changing the air currents in Fenway Park to the detriment of hitters. In the 1980s, an MIT professor published his scientific finding that the addition does, in fact, curtail home runs at Fenway Park, giving credence to that claim by players, coaches, and fans.

In 2002, the club renamed the club seats the ".406 Club" (in honor of Ted Williams' batting average in 1941), six days after his death. (Williams is the last player to hit .400 or better in the major leagues.)

During the fall and winter of 2005-2006, as part of the continuing expansion efforts at Fenway Park, the existing .406 club is being rebuilt. Starting with the 2006 season, the second deck will feature two open-air levels: the bottom level will be the new "EMC Club" featuring 406 seats and concierge services, and above that, the State Street Pavilion Club, with 374 seats and a dedicated standing room area. The added seats will be wider than the current seats.


Center field "triangle"

There was once a smaller "triangle" at the left end of the bleachers, posted as 388 feet (118.3 m). The end of the bleachers form a right angle with "The Green Monster", and the flagpole stands within that little triangle. That is not the true power alley, but deep left-center. The true power alley distance is not posted. The foul line intersects with "The Green Monster" at a right angle, so the power alley could be estimated at 336 feet (102.4 m), assuming the power alley is 22.5 degrees away from the foul line as measured from home plate.


"Canvas Alley"

A phrase made popular by Boston television commentators, "Canvas Alley" is the open alley behind the first base line where the grounds crew sits. Contrary to the belief that it "houses" the tarp it does not. The tarp sits next to the camera pit which is next to the Red Sox dugout.

Minor League Affiliates

Triple-A: Pawtucket Red Sox (International League)
Double-A: Portland Sea Dogs (Eastern League)
Advanced-A: Wilmington Blue Rocks (Carolina League)
Single-A: Greenville (South Atlantic League)
Short-A: Lowell Spinners (New York-Penn Legaue)
Rookie: GCL Red Sox (Gulf Coast League)
Rookie: Ciudad Alianza (VSL Red Sox/Padres cooperated) (Venezuelan Summer League)

[Tealey7]

Active Roster (Pictures To Follow)

Pitchers

19: Josh Beckett

53: Brendan Donnelly

48: Javier Lopez

18: Daisuke Matsuzaka

37: Hideki Okajima

58: Jonathan Papelbon

36: Joel Piñeiro

32: J.C Romero

38: Curt Schilling

39: Kyle Snyder

51: Julián Tavárez

49: Tim Wakefield

Catchers

28: Doug Mirabelli

33: Jason Varitek

Infielders

13: Alex Cora

12: Eric Hinske

25: Mike Lowell

23: Julio Lugo

15: Dustin Pedroia

20: Kevin Youkilis

Outfielders

10: Coco Crisp

7: J.D Drew

22: Wily Mo Pena

24: Manny Ramirez

Designated Hitter

34: David Ortiz

Extended Roster (Pictures To Follow)

Pitchers

54: Craig Breslow

30: Matt Clement

17: Manny Delcarmen

61: Kason Gabbard

68: Devern Hansack

56: Craig Hansen

83: Kyle Jackson

31: Jon Lester

74: Edgar Martinez

62: David Pauley

50: Mike Timlin

Catchers

72: George Kottaras

Infielders

none

Outfielders

75: Brandon Moss

60: David Murphy

Coaching Staff (Pictures To Follow)

Manager

47: Terry Francona

Coaches

16: Luis Alicea (first base)

52: John Farrell (pitching)

35: DeMarlo Hale (third base)

29: Dave Magadan (hitting)

2: Brad Mills (bench)

57: Gary Tuck (bullpen)

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 2 @ Royals

Our season opener went badly wrong for us, as we were hammered 7-1 after an up and down Spring Training programme. In our latest match, we looked a lot better and a lot more awake.

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- When Gold Glove third baseman Mike Lowell committed errors on consecutive ground balls, Josh Beckett figured it was time for payback.

"As many times as he's picked me up in my career, I wanted to pick him up so bad," the Boston right-hander said. "That's why I was so pumped when we got that last out."

With the help of a fine running catch by right fielder J.D. Drew, Beckett and the Red Sox escaped damage in Lowell's third-inning meltdown and went on to a 7-1 victory over Kansas City on a cold Wednesday night.

"I have no one to blame but myself," said Lowell, who also had a throwing error with two out in the ninth. "Everyone's playing under the same conditions. There were plenty of plays made out there. I didn't do it. I can't give you anything cool."

The three errors were exactly half the number Lowell committed in 153 games in 2006 when he tied the NL record for third basemen with at least 135 games played. His .977 fielding percentage coming into the season was tops among major league third baseman with at least 1,000 games.

With one out and two on courtesy of Lowell's balky glove, Beckett came back from a 3-0 count to strike out Mark Teahen. Then Mike Sweeney hit a slicing line drive into the right-center gap that the swift Drew ran down to end the inning.

"I almost kissed J.D. Drew after he made that play in the gap," Lowell said.

"I can deal with errors. that's part of the game. But when runs come in after that you really feel bad. J.D. made a great play. It's part of the game, guys picking each other up. It made me feel a lot better.

"J.D. came in and I said, `No one loves you more than me right now."'

Drew and Lowell hit back-to-back doubles in a three-run first inning and Kevin Youkilis added a two-run home run off reliever Todd Wellemeyer in the seventh to make it 6-1 as the temperature dipped to 39 degrees.

Julio Lugo had an RBI single for Boston in the eighth.

Beckett (1-0) allowed a two-out double to Teahen in the first and a two-out double to Ross Gload in the fourth. He had five strikeouts and four walks while delivering Boston's first win after Curt Schilling faltered in Monday's season opener. Jason LaRue got the Royals' RBI on a sacrifice fly in the fourth.

After giving up three runs in the first, Odalis Perez (0-1) retired 13 of 15 before walking Manny Ramirez with one out in the sixth. After Drew singled, rookie Joakim Soria made his major league debut and surrendered a sacrifice fly to Jason Varitek that put the Red Sox on top 4-1.

Drew's RBI double in the first was followed by Lowell's two-run double.

Jason LaRue had a sacrifice fly for the Royals in the fourth.

It's been a rough two games for Royals rookie third baseman Alex Gordon. The 2006 minor league player of the year is 0-for-7 with four strikeouts and hasn't hit a ball out of the infield.

"This kid's going to be a heck of a player," said Royals manager Buddy Bell. "He's trying like the devil to get his first hit. A lot of us have been there. Once he gets that out of the way, he'll be fine. But he's played great at third. He's very, very hard on himself and sometimes that might get in your way but eventually it pays off in the end."

Game Notes
The Royals placed RHP closer Octavio Dotel on the 15-day DL with a strained muscle on his left side. Manager Buddy Bell said the problem isn't considered long-term. RHP David Riske will close in his absence. ... The game-time temperature of 42 degrees was more than 30 degrees colder than the reading for Monday afternoon's sunny season opener. ... The only other time Lowell had two errors in an inning was on July 1, 2005.

Nice start. Always good to win. Heh.

Scoring Summary

1st Inning: Drew double to right: Ortiz scored, Ramirez to third base (Sox 1-0 Royals)
1st Inning: Lowell double to deep left: Ramirez and Drew scored (Sox 3-0 Royals)
4th Inning: LaRue sacrifice fly to left: Brown scored (Sox 3-1 Royals)
6th Inning: Varitek sacrific fly to right: Ramirez scored, Drew to third base (Sox 4-1 Royals)
7th Inning: Youkilis HOME RUN: Youkilis and Pedroia scored (Sox 6-1 Royals)
8th Inning: Lugo single to right: Crisp scored, Pedroia to second base (Sox 7-1 Royals)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Josh Beckett (Sox) [1-0]
Losing Pitcher - Odalis Perez (Royals) [0-1]

AL East Standings

Yankees: 1-0
Blue Jays: 1-1
Red Sox: 1-1
Devil Rays: 0-1
Orioles: 0-3

It's a long season. Very. We finish our series against the Royals tonight. Time to roll the Dice-K himself, Daisuke Matsuzaka.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 1 @ Rangers[/size]

We saw the Red Sox beat the Royals, now we see us get stuck in neutral against Texas.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/06/Ewkm7QgZ.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- Sammy Sosa was laughing when he got to first base after giving the Texas Rangers their first lead of the season.


"Sometimes you don't have to swing hard to get a hit," Sosa said.

Or even swing at all like Sosa in the 38-year-old slugger's first home game for Texas since his rookie season in 1989.

Sosa was actually trying to check his swing and was pulling his bat back when he made contact in his first at-bat. The ball blooped into short right for an RBI single and the Rangers went on to a 2-0 victory over Boston in their home opener Friday.

"It was perfect," Sosa said smiling, admitting that he initially didn't realize that he had even hit the ball.

"We finally caught a break right there," rookie manager Ron Washington said.

After being swept in a season-opening three-game series at the Los Angeles Angels, when they never even led, the Rangers finally gave Washington his first victory even though they had only three singles.

Robinson Tejeda (1-0) allowed two hits, one of them an infield single, over seven shutout innings. After trying to field a ball barehanded in the sixth and then walking a batter, the No. 4 starter got out of that inning when Red Sox sluggers David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez had consecutive flyouts.

Akinori Otsuka, still in the closer role with Eric Gagne starting the season on the disabled list, gave up a leadoff single to Ramirez in the ninth before getting the last three outs.

The Rangers scored runs in the first two innings off knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (0-1), who gave up three hits over six innings. Texas had given up runs in the first inning each game against Los Angeles.

"It's one of those days where the guy on the other side pitched really good. After the first two innings, I didn't know if I was going to make it. I felt like I settled down after that," Wakefield said. "I pitched well, we just didn't win."

Instead, it was a feel-good day for the Rangers and Sosa, who after a year out off baseball agreed to a minor league deal and then made the team by hitting .408 with five home runs in 17 spring games.

Sosa, fifth on the career list with 588 homers, ilalalalaing only .200 (2-for-10) with four strikeouts when it counts. But he finally got his first RBI.

"The first couple of games every year, it's still the same thing, people want two hits in one at-bat and want to be the hero every day," Sosa said. "It's only a couple of games. Come see me in six months when everything is there. You have to believe in yourself, no panic."

Sosa was having a good time even before the game, cutting up with Ortiz and Ramirez when they were lined up for pregame introductions. Sosa was greeted with mostly cheers when he was introduced as the No. 5 hitter playing right field.

Sosa was 1-for-3 with a strikeout and a routine flyout to center before being replaced in the field by Nelson Cruz in the eighth inning. While Washington has said he expects to use Sosa primarily as a designated hitter, Sosa caught six flyball outs Friday.

Michael Young and Mark Teixeira were on base in the first when Sosa got his check-swing hit.

Texas went ahead 2-0 in the second after Brad Wilkerson led off by reaching on an error by second baseman Dustin Pedroia. Wilkerson stole second base and scored on Gerald Laird's single to left, sliding in ahead of Ramirez's two-hop throw to the plate.

That's all the Rangers needed to avoid an 0-4 start.

"It's definitely nice to get the first one out of the way. It doesn't matter how you win as long as you get one on the board," Young said. "We come home and everybody was making such a big deal out of three games. It was almost like they were ready to talk about the Cowboys again."

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones did sit in the field-level box with Rangers owner Tom Hicks. The first pitch was thrown by Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin, whose career with the Cowboys ended in 1999 -- the same year the Rangers went to the playoffs.

Boston never got a runner to third base.

Coco Crisp had a one-out double in the fifth, but was stranded there. Julio Lugo drew a one-out walk in the eighth against reliever Joaquin Benoit and went to second on a groundball before Ortiz grounded out to end the inning.

"They were calling the high strikes today and we were popping them up," Pedroia said. "We hit some balls well, but not enough to get going."

Game notes
Rangers 3B Hank Blalock had homered in four straight home openers before going 0-for-3 on Friday. ... Wakefield made his 444th appearance with Red Sox, second most in team history behind Bob Stanley's 637. His 307 starts are second only to Roger Clemens (382). ... It was 55 degrees at game time, the coolest home opener since Rangers Ballpark in Arlington opened in 1994. ... It was the Rangers' first shutout in a home opener since April 4, 1989, a 4-0 win over Detroit.

Ah well. Can't win them all.

Scoring Summary

1st Inning: Sosa single to shallow right, Young scored, Teixeira to third (Sox 0-1 Rangers)
2nd Inning: Laird single to left, Wilkerson scored (Sox 0-2 Royals)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Robinson Tejada (Rangers) [1-0]
Losing Pitcher - Tim Wakefield (Sox) [0-1]
Save - Akinori Otsuka (Rangers) [1]

AL East Standings

Devil Rays: 2-1
Red Sox: 2-2
Yankeea: 1-2
Blue Jays: 1-2
Orioles: 1-3

Ah well. Tonight we play again against the Rangers. Julian Tavarez takes the mound as starting pitcher.

[Tealey7]

Game Preview - Game 1 v Mariners

Probably more practical to do a preview of our next game than a review of our last one, which we won. We still lost the series 2-1, but at least Schilling got a win. Tonight is our home opener against Seattle.

Originally Posted by Red Sox

The unofficial New England holiday known as the Fenway Park opener arrives on Tuesday afternoon, when the Red Sox break out their home whites for the first time in the 2007 season.
The smell of sausages will be unmistakable throughout Yawkey Way in the hours leading up to the contest with the Mariners, as Fenway gets set to celebrate its 95th anniversary of baseball.

Whether you're a longtime member of the Red Sox or a newcomer like J.D. Drew, it figures to be a special day.

"I'm excited," said Drew. "I played there three times before. I know the passion that comes long with the fans and the atmosphere there. Not only that, I love that field. You go into that place, and there's just that nostalgia with that ballpark and a lot of history and a lot of excitement will be brought, especially with that first day. I'm looking forward to it."

Josh Beckett will probably tune out the pregame flavor as he'll be locked in on his second home opening start in as many years. Last year, Beckett fired seven strong innings en route to a 7-3 victory over Toronto. He'll try to perform similar heroics against Seattle this time.

The Mariners are led by Ichiro Suzuki, who is sure to have a reunion with Daisuke Matsuzaka, his teammate on Team Japan in the 2006 World Baseball classic.

Before Beckett makes that first pitch to Ichiro, there will be plenty of pomp and circumstance.

The 1967 Impossible Dream team, led by captain Carl Yastrzemski, will be recognized in a pregame ceremony. Harry Connick Jr. will perform what should be a stirring rendition of "America the Beautiful." There will be a flyover presented by The Green Mountain Boys of the 158th Fighter Wing from the Vermont Air National Guard.

And shortly before first pitch, Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky will proclaim to the crowd that it's time to "play ball."

"It lets the fans know that baseball is finally here and summer is here for the people that live up there in the North and deal with that bitter cold all winter," said Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon. "I think it's kind of like the realization that summer and baseball is here."

The first home batter to step into the Fenway batters box in 2007 will be Julio Lugo, who like Drew, came to appreciate the fabled yard in Boston's Back Bay as a visitor.

"It's going to be bananas," said Lugo. "It's going to be exciting to be there. I can't wait to play my first game over there and see what it's like to be part of the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Just the electricity you feel from playing there. There's so much history there. You're glad you've played in a place of that."

Pitching matchup
BOS: RHP Josh Beckett (1-0, 1.80 ERA)
Coming off a victory against the Royals, Beckett takes the mound in Boston's home opener for the second straight season. Against Kansas City on Wednesday, the right-hander tossed five strong innings, allowing a run on two hits while striking out five. In last year's Fenway opener, Beckett pitched seven stellar innings to beat the Jays. He's 1-1 with a 5.27 ERA vs. Seattle in two career starts.

SEA: LHP Jarrod Washburn (0-0, 3.00 ERA)
The veteran left-hander, who led the staff last season in quality starts with 16, is one-for-one in 2007 but settled for a no-decision as Seattle squandered a three-run lead in his first outing. Washburn has a 3-3 record and 4.66 ERA in his career against the Red Sox, going 0-1 in two starts against them last season.

Player to watch
Richie Sexson is 3-for-7 against Beckett, including a double.

On the Internet
MLB.TV
Gameday Audio
• Gameday
• Official game notes

On television
• NESN

On radio
• WRKO-680 AM, Spanish Baseball Network (Español)

Starting Pitchers

Sox - Josh Beckett (1-0)
Mariners - Jarrod Washburn (0-0)

Come on the Sox.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 1 v Mariners

Boston: 14--------------Seattle: 3

Always nice for a home opener to be a blow-out.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/10/ycFjn5aF.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

BOSTON (AP) -- The Red Sox welcomed the Seattle Mariners to Boston with a whole different kind of storm.
Pelting World Series star Jeff Weaver with seven runs in the first two innings, Boston celebrated its home opener with a 14-3 victory on Tuesday in the Mariners' first game since a blizzard snowed them out of four straight in Cleveland.

"They were put in a tough situation for the last four days," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "We had an advantage, and we took advantage. Hopefully that will work for a couple days."

Jason Varitek and Kevin Youkilis each had three of Boston'lalalalas, and J.D. Drew homered in his first game for Boston at Fenway Park. Josh Beckett (2-0) pitched seven innings of two-hit ball, striking out eight and allowing one run while retiring his last 15 batters.

Boston also hit seven doubles and drew seven walks.

"We pulled out the whupping sticks today," Beckett said. "They've been off for a while. It maybe affected their pitchers being able to throw strikes. You can't go through our order and walk guys. You're going to get burned."

Weaver (0-1) was dismal in his first outing since pitching eight innings of four-hit ball in the final game of the St. Louis Cardinals' World Series victory over the Detroit Tigers. He allowed seven runs, seven hits and two walks, throwing 70 pitches in two innings.

The Mariners also helped out with errors by left fielder Raul Ibanez and shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt while managing just two runners against Beckett.

"Yeah, we played like we hadn't played in four days today," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. "We pitched like it. We swung the bats like it. We played defense like it. We should be better tomorrow."

It doesn't get any easier for the Mariners: Daisuke Matsuzaka makes his Fenway debut on Wednesday night in a game Red Sox fans have been anticipating since the team committed $103 million for the Japanese ace in the offseason.

"When I look out into the field, I see a huge sign of Dunkin Donuts that's in Japanese," Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki said. "Just by looking at that, I can tell that it's something big."

Beckett fanned Suzuki in all three at-bats on Tuesday -- just the second pitcher ever to do that following Tim Hudson on Sept. 19, 2003, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

"It's hard to see Ichiro fan once," Hargrove said. "He's human. He's awfully good, but he's human."

The only life the Mariners showed after their long layoff was when Jose Guillen gave reliever Brendan Donnelly a menacing stare after striking out at the start of the eighth. The two have a history dating to 2005, when they both played for the Los Angeles Angels and Guillen was suspended for a clubhouse tantrum.

Guillen was ejected and the benches cleared, but no punches were thrown. Donnelly hit the next batter, Kenji Johjima, and was ejected.

The Red Sox trotted out the usual Opening Day fare, hanging bunting from the upper decks and bringing in Harry Connick Jr. to sing "America the Beautiful." They also honored the 1967 "Impossible Dream" team that won the AL pennant, bringing them out from behind a giant U.S. flag covering the Green Monster as Robert Goulet sang "The Impossible Dream."

Weaver put the first four runners of the game on base and then allowed a sacrifice fly to Drew and a two-run double to Coco Crisp. In the second, Julio Lugo and Youkilis doubled before Drew lined the ball to center for a two-run shot that gave Boston a 7-0 lead.

Game notes
The Mariners made their much-delayed road debut. ... Lugo reached safely on all four trips to the plate. ... Only five of the 23 batters Beckett faced hit the ball out of the infield. ... The 14 runs by the Red Sox were the second-most they'd ever scored in a home opener behind a 15-5 victory over the New York Yankees in 1973. ... The Red Sox have scored in the first inning in six of seven games.

Go Sox. Great win.

Scoring Summary

1st Inning: Ramirez single to centre: Lugo scored, Youkilis to third, Ortiz to second (Mariners 0-1 Sox)
1st Inning: Drew sacrifice fly to centre, Youkilis scored, Ortiz to third (Mariners 0-2 Sox)
1st Inning: Crisp ground rule double to right: Ortiz and Youkilis scored, Ortiz to third (Mariners 0-4 Sox)
2nd Inning: Youkilis double to left: Lugo scored (Mariners 0-5 Sox)
2nd Inning: Drew HOME RUN: Youkilis and Drew scored (Marners 0-7 Sox)
3rd Inning: Lopez grounded out to second: Johijma scored, Betancourt to third (Mariners 1-7)
3rd Inning: Lugo single to shallow left: Varitek scored, Pedroia to second. Pedroia to third and Lugo to second on fielding error
4th Inning: Lowell double to left: Ramirez scored, Drew to third
4th Inning: Varitek single to centre: Drew and Lowell scored

And so on. I can't be bothered to do any more, but it carried on like that, and the Sox came home 14-3 winners.

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Josh Beckett (Sox) [2-0]
Losing Pitcher - Jeff Weaver (Mariners) [0-1]

AL East Standings

Yankees: 4-3
Blue Jays: 4-3
Red Sox: 4-3
Orioles: 3-5
Devil Rays: 2-5

The Fenway Faithful get their first home examination of Dice-K tonight, as he takes the mound as starter tonight against the Mariners. Felix Hernandez is starting pitcher for the Mariners.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 1 v LA Angels

A series started after a 1-1 tie against Seattle after the 3rd game was washed out. We started our series against the Angels with Tim Wakefield taking the mound for the Sox.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/13/OCMSdZef.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

BOSTON (AP) -- Jonathan Papelbon pitched with his usual brilliance. Doug Mirabelli hit with rare success.

When the Angels still had a chance to win, both produced and the Boston Red Sox beat Los Angeles 10-1 on Friday night.

The light-hitting Mirabelli homered and drove in two runs and closer Papelbon struck out Vladimir Guerrero on a 97 mph fastball with two runners on in the eighth before Boston scored six runs in the bottom of the inning.

The score was just 4-1 with one out in the eighth when manager Terry Francona decided to bring Papelbon in instead of waiting for the ninth.

"We don't want to have one of the premier weapons not in the game when the game is in the balance," Francona said.

Guerrero, one of the best hitters in the game, was the potential tying run when he swung at and missed the first pitch then fouled two more off before striking out. Then Garret Anderson lined out to left. Papelbon threw six pitches, all for strikes.

"Pap obviously showed the reason why he's our closer again," starter Tim Wakefield said.

Papelbon had 35 saves and an 0.92 ERA as a rookie last season but was switched to the rotation in spring training. About 10 days before the season began, he returned to his closer's role. So far this season, he has three saves and has retired all 10 batters he faced, six on strikeouts.

Mirabelli's career has been much less distinguished. Known for his ability to catch Wakefield's knuckler, he plays once every five days and admitted that "I felt lost at the plate a lot" last season.

But on Friday, he tied the game 1-1 with a leadoff homer in the fifth off John Lackey (2-1), then made it 3-1 with an RBI single in the sixth.

"When a guy who's not playing every day gives you an offensive punch like that, it gives your whole team a lift," Francona said.

David Ortiz and Mike Lowell added two-run doubles in the eighth and drove in three runs each as the Red Sox finally gave Wakefield (1-1) some support. And some attention -- considering he's part of a high-profile rotation led by Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka.

"It's easy to overlook him when you have a staff like they do," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.

Wakefield allowed one run in seven innings in his second solid outing of the season. He was excellent in his other start this season but lost 2-0 on April 6 when the Red Sox managed only three hits against Texas, wasting his six-inning effort in which he gave up one earned run and three hits.

Last year, the Red Sox scored only six runs while he was in the game during his 11 losses.

"I can't do anything about it," Wakefield said. "I have my job to do."

The outlook wasn't much brighter on Friday, when he allowed one run on five hits and two walks in seven innings. In their previous game, Boston lost 3-0 on a one-hitter by Seattle's Felix Hernandez. The Red Sox entered Friday's game with a .238 batting average.

"I thought we did a pretty good job early," Scioscia said. "We hit some balls to the deepest part of the park."

The Angels led 1-0 on Guerrero's RBI single in the fourth but fell behind 2-1 in the fifth on Mirabelli's homer and Ortiz's RBI single.

Mirabelli had returned to Boston from San Diego early last season after catcher Josh Bard had 10 passed balls in Wakefield's first four starts. Rather than wait for Bard to improve, the Red Sox reunited Wakefield with Mirabelli, who had caught him for much of the previous four seasons.

"He's so valuable to me," Wakefield said. "Tonight, he won the game for us."

Game notes
The Angels are 1-4 since starting the season 5-1. ... Boston 2B Dustin Pedroia broke an 0-for-14 slump with a single in the sixth. ... Lackey allowed three runs on nine hits in 5 2-3 innings after giving up just one earned run in his other 12 innings this year. ... Boston's J.D. Drew singled in the fourth and halalalala in all nine games. ... Red Sox 3B Lowell, who had six errors all last season, committed his fourth with a wild throw in the eighth.

Nice win.

Scoring Summary

4th Inning: Guerrero single to right: Cabrera scored (Angels 1-0 Sox)
5th Inning: Maribelli HOME RUN to right centre (Angels 1-1 Sox)
5th Inning: Ortiz single to right: Lugo scored (Angels 1-2 Sox)
6th Inning: Maribelli single to centre: Lugo scored (Angels 1-3 Sox)
7th Inning: Lowell sacrifice fly to left: Youkilis scored (Angels 1-4 Sox)
8th Innnig: Ortiz ground rule double to deep right: Pedroia and Lugo scored (Angels 1-6 Sox)
8th Inning: Drew single to left: Youkilis and Ortiz scored (Angels 1-8 Sox)
8th Inning: Lowell double to left: Pena and Hinske scored (Angels 1-10 Sox)

A very good 10-1 win.

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Tim Wakefield (Red Sox) [1-1]
Losing Pitcher - John Lackey (Angels) [2-1]

AL East Standings

Blue Jays: 6-4
Red Sox: 5-4
Orioles: 5-6
Yankees: 4-5
Devil Rays: 4-6

Our next game in the series is tonight. We will see Curt Schilling start for the Sox. In other news....

Ortiz, Crisp and Hale to Wear #42 On Sunday

In memory of Jackie Robinson, the first MLB player to break down baseball's colour barrier.

Originally Posted by Red Sox.com

BOSTON -- As it turns out, Coco Crisp won't be the only Red Sox player to wear No. 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson on Sunday. The club announced on Friday night that star slugger David Ortiz and third-base coach DeMarlo Hale will also don it in accordance with Major League Baseball's 60-year anniversary celebration of the man who broke baseball's color barrier.
At the suggestion of Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., baseball Commissioner Bud Selig lifted the league-wide retirement of No. 42 for all games played this Sunday.

Robinson's No. 42 was retired in 1997 to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of his arrival in the Major Leagues.

The last Sox player to wear No. 42 before Sunday was popular slugger Mo Vaughn.

"It's kind of hard to talk about, other than saying it's a great honor, and I feel blessed to be able to do this," Crisp said recently.

"Especially coming from another country, where [your] chances are very small," said Ortiz. "Getting to know that those chances have a lot to do with what Jackie did, there's definitely an appreciation."

The ceremonial first pitch of Sunday's game against the Angels will be thrown by Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a Harvard professor who has been committed to diversity and equal justice throughout his career.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 2 v LA Angels

The ageless Curt Schilling, in his 100000000000000000th season in the MLB started for us last night against the Angels at Fenway. The boy done good.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/14/aWoaU4t4.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

BOSTON (AP) -- Curt Schilling is willing to mix in more pitches these days if it means he's able to throw fewer pitches overall.

Relying less on his fastball and more on changing speeds and location, the Red Sox right-hander cruised through eight shutout innings on Saturday and led Boston to an 8-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

"There are counts and situations where I used to be a four-seam fastball guy, and maybe that's not the best pitch anymore," Schilling (2-1) said after extending his shutout streak to 14 consecutive innings. "That's where the changeup, the curve ball and the slider come in."

Angels centerfielder Gary Matthews Jr. flubbed a line drive in the third to allow a pair of unearned runs that gave Boston a 2-0 lead. David Ortiz added a three-run homer to back Schilling, who allowed four hits while striking out four and walking one to pick up his second consecutive win.

Schilling gave up five runs in four innings on opening day and a first-inning homer in his next start, but has not allowed a run since then to drop his ERA from 11.25 to 2.84.

"Curt did what he does: Changes speeds and throws strikes against us," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "Curt knows how to pitch with a lead, and he did a good job."

Schilling, who threw 103 pitches, did not allow a baserunner to reach third base. He got a standing ovation as he tipped his cap to the crowd after getting Orlando Cabrera on a popup to right to end the eighth inning and finish off his longest outing since June 13.

Brendan Donnelly pitched the ninth.

"I absolutely thought I was going to finish that game right up through the (28-pitch) seventh inning," Schilling said. "Going back out for the ninth would have been me trying to get a shutout as opposed to me trying to make 33 or 34 starts and be as healthy as I can for every one."

Ortiz hit his third homer of the year and drove in four runs, lining a shot to straightaway center off Greg Jones in the eighth to make it 8-0. Eric Hinske reached base four times and scored two runs to help the Red Sox win for the fourth time in five games.

Hector Carrasco (0-1) allowed three runs -- one earned -- and two hits with six walks in 3 1-3 innings; he struck out four. Cabrera and Howie Kendrick each had two hits for the Angels, who have lost five out of six games since opening the season 5-1 to match the best start in club history.

Carrasco needed 45 pitches to make it through two innings without allowing a run. In the third he gave up a leadoff triple to Hinske, got Ortiz and Manny Ramirez out before walking J.D. Drew intentionally and then Mike Lowell unintentionally.

With the bases loaded, Jason Varitek hit a sinking liner to center field that went off the heel of Matthews' glove for an error, allowing two runs to score.

"It was just one of those balls that getlalalala pretty hard," Matthews said. "It was knuckling a little. You feel bad because you cost your pitcher a couple of runs."

Game notes
Drew was held hitless in three at-bats, ending hilalalalaing streak at nine games. Wily Mo Pena pinch hit for him in the eighth. ... 1B Kevin Youkilis was given a scheduled day off. He showed no problems after being hit by a pitch on Friday night. Pena is the only Red Sox position player who hasn't started a game. ... OF Coco Crisp, Ortiz and 3B coach DeMarlo Hale will wear No. 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson on Sunday. ... Los Angeles SS Orlando Cabrera, who walalalala by a pitch on his left elbow, was in the lineup after testing out OK before the game. He had a single and a double. ... INF Chone Figgins, who had a splint removed from his right hand earlier in the week, swung on both sides before the game and felt good. He will throw on Monday. ... To celebrate the 10th birthday for Red Sox mascot Wally, the Green Monster, Bernie Brewer, Billy the Marlin and Friar Tuck from the Padres were at the game, as well as mascots from the Boston Bruins and Celtics.

Always nice to hammer a team twice in 2 days.

Scoring Summary

3rd Inning: Error by CF Matthews: Hinske and Drew scored (Angels 0-2 Sox)
4th Inning: Pedroia scored, Ortiz to second on wild pitch from Bootcheck (Angels 0-3 Sox)
6th Inning: Ortiz single to right: Lugo scored, Hinske to third (Angels 0-4 Sox)
6th Inning: Ramirez single to left: Hinske scored, Ortiz to third (Angels 0-5 Sox)
8th Inning: Ortiz HOME RUN to centre: Lugo, Hinske and Ortiz scored (Angels 0-8 Sox)

AL East Standings

Red Sox: 6-4
Blue Jays: 6-5
Orioles: 6-6
Yankees: 5-5
Devil Rays: 4-7

I've just read that our game tonight against the Angels is postponed due to rain. However, I'll get back to you on that.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 4 v Angels

Game 3 was washed out, but we were back for game 4, which saw Josh Beckett take the mound. And do really well.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/16/lJ4RJSPi.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

BOSTON (AP) -- Josh Beckett woke up at early Monday only to learn that his start for Boston would be delayed at least two hours by rain. The Los Angeles Angels still haven't gotten their bats going.

Beckett pitched his third straight strong game and the Red Sox won 7-2, completing an abbreviated three-game series in which it outscored the Angels 25-3.

"It shows what our offense is capable of," Beckett (3-0) said.

The Red Sox scored six runs in the first inning off Ervin Santana (1-2), five of them before the first out. That erased a 1-0 lead the Angels took on Orlando Cabrera's first homer of the season.

"You know there's going to be ups and downs," Gary Matthews Jr. said after the Angels sixth loss in seven games. "It seems like when it rains it pours, figuratively and literally."

Sunday's game already had been rained out. After waking up, Beckett learned that Monday's 10:05 a.m. start had been pushed back two hours because of heavy rain. It started at 12:18 p.m. without further delays.

"It's definitely different. It feels like the loser's bracket of an AAU tournament or something. Getting ready for a 10 o'clock game last night, do you go to bed at 8 or 9?" Beckett said. "It's easy to get out of sorts" with the uncertain starting time.

In six innings, he gave up six hits, struck out five and walked one. Howie Kendrick homered against Red Sox reliever Kyle Snyder in the ninth.

The annual home game on Patriots Day, a state holiday, usually starts at 11:05 a.m. but was scheduled an hour earlier.

Santana had a lot more trouble than Beckett as the first six batters reached base, one on a throwing error by second baseman Kendrick on a potential double play ball.

"He was loose. He was ready to go into the game," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Santana. "He really didn't have the command he needed to get ahead of guys to hold down a good lineup."

Julio Lugo started Boston's rally with one of the team's four doubles in the first and made two outstanding defensive plays.

With a runner at second and one out in the fourth, he made a catch with his back to the infield in short left field. With two outs and runners at first and second in the fifth, he threw out Reggie Willits from deep in the hole. Willits entered the game as a pinch runner in the first after Vladimir Guerrero walalalala on the right wrist by a pitch. X-rays of his bruised wrist were negative.

"People say that I'm a better offensive player than a defensive player," Lugo said. "We're going to have to see."

In the sixth, with Garret Anderson on second and two outs, center fielder Wily Mo Pena charged Kendrick's single and fired the ball to cutoff man Kevin Youkilis. Kendrick was tagged out after rounding first.

Beckett's ERA remained at 1.50. In three games, he's allowed three runs and 10 hits with 18 strikeouts and five walks in 18 innings.

Santana continued his struggles on the road, entering the game at 9-12 with a 6.65 ERA in his career. At home, he is 20-5 with a 3.07 ERA.

He ran into trouble right away Monday.

Lugo doubled and scored on Youkilis' single. David Ortiz doubled Youkilis to third and Manny Ramirez singled both home. J.D. Drew then grounded to second, but Kendrick's throw was wide of shortstop Cabrera, allowing Ramirez to score and Drew to take second.

Mike Lowell and Alex Cora followed with RBI doubles. Boston's other run came in the fourth on Ortiz's fourth homer of the season, giving him eight RBIs for the series.

"I'm pleased," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "It was a weekend [with] spotty play, games were on hold, it was cold, we missed one, but we still came out, especially early, and swung the bats effectively."

Game notes
Cabrera's homer was the Angels' first in 65 innings in a span of eight games. ... Pena got his first start of the season. He replaced Coco Crisp, who was 1-for-16 on the homestand that ended Monday . ... Boston C Jason Varitek went 0-for-3 to drop to 3-for-26 batting left-handed. He is 3-for-4 from the right side. ... Matthews was 5-for-36 before singling in the fifth for the Angels. ... Scott Shields retired the heart of Boston's lineup on called third strikes in the seventh -- Ortiz, Ramirez and Drew.

Great win. I like to think some momentum is building.

My DIY Score Summary

Varioulalalalas from us. Very few from them. Ortiz scored a monster HOME RUN in the 4th inning. We take it with a final score of 7-2.

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Josh Beckett (Red Sox) [3-0]
Losing Pitcher - Ervin Santana (Angels) [1-2]

AL East Standings

Red Sox: 7-4
Blue Jays: 7-5
Orioles: 7-6
Yankees: 5-6
Devil Rays: 5-8

We face our first all-AL East series, which starts tonight away to the Toronto Blue Jays. Dice-K will start as pitcher against Gustavo Chacin of the Jays.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 1 @ Blue Jays

After some stellar work by Dice-K, we still manage to lose. However, we can't win every game. The Celtics and Bruins proved that.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/17/wxO3elMe.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

TORONTO (AP) -- Daisuke Matsuzaka's lack of control in a key situation cost him against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Dice-K struck out 10 over six innings but forced in the go-ahead run with a bases-loaded walk to Gregg Zaun in the fourth, and Toronto beat the Boston Red Sox 2-1 Tuesday night despite getting just three hits.

"He didn't command like he can," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

Matsuzaka (1-2) retired his first eight batters and Wily Mo Pena's third-inning homer gave him a lead, but Lyle Overbay's single tied the score in Toronto's two-run fourth.

"When you have a chance to get him, you have to get him," Overbay said.

Jason Frasor, taking over as closer while B.J. Ryan is sidelined by a sprained elbow, got four outs for his first save since Sept. 20, 2005, against Seattle. He retired David Ortiz on a groundout to end the eighth with a runner on, then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth. Manny Ramirez lined out, and Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell grounded out.

"As the game progressed, we lost our patience a little bit," Francona said.

Matsuzaka allowed just three hits and three walks in six innings as his ERA rose from 2.57 to 2.70. He struck out 10 for the second time in three starts -- the previous pitcher to reach double-digit strikeouts twice in his first three major league starts was the Los Angeles Dodgers' Fernando Valenzuela in 1981.

"Even if I pitch well and the team does not win, I'm definitely not happy with that result," Matsuzaka said through a translator. "We had come in here having won a few games in a row, and I'm very disappointed we couldn't keep that streak going. The weight of that loss as a team weighs upon me more heavily than my loss as a pitcher."

Gustavo Chacin (2-0) allowed one run and six hits in 6 2/3 innings, and Casey Janssen got three outs before Frasor came in. Chacin improved to 6-0 in seven starts against Boston.

"He's been tough on us in the past," Francona said. "We're going to have to find a way to figure him out, because we're going to be facing him a bunch."

Matsuzaka's Toronto debut, combined with a $2 Canadian ticket promotion, helped draw a crowd of 42,162, Toronto's biggest since Opening Day.

"I definitely heard and noticed the cheers from the Japanese fans prior to the game," Matsuzaka said. "I, of course, appreciated them."

Pena, starting in right as J.D. Drew got a night off from the starting lineup, was 0-for-7 this season before his homer, which bounced off the center-field restaurant.

"If he recognizes pitches and swings at strikes, he's going to do some damage," Francona said.

Vernon Wells started Toronto's fourth-inning rally with a one-out single, Thomas walked on four pitches and Overbay singled under the glove of shortstop Julio Lugo.

"We didn't do much, but we did enough," Wells said. "Guys went up there with a good approach. A lot of us were swinging at high fastballs, and guys went up there that inning and were trying to lay off that stuff. If you're able to do that, it gives you a better chance to hit."

Aaron Hill fell behind on an 0-2 count, then worked out a nine-pitch walk, and Zaun walked on five pitches. Matsuzaka threw two balls to Jason Smith, got a swinging strike, then retired Smith on a flyout to the warning track in center.

Matsuzaka struck out four in a row at one stretch, getting Alex Rios, Adam Lind and Wells in the fifth, then Thomas leading off the sixth.

"He's only going to get better," Thomas said. "He can pitch, he knows what he's doing out there. He knows how to get guys chasing, too. That's the sign of a great pitcher."

Drew pinch hit and walked leading off the eighth, but was doubled up when he broke for second on Lugo's liner to third. Coco Crisp followed with a single before Frasor relieved.

Hideki Okajima relieved Matsuzaka in the seventh and struck out the side in his only inning.

Game notes
Toronto's past three wins have all been by 2-1 scores. ... Toronto OF Reed Johnson underwent surgery on a herniated disk in his lower back on Tuesday. He's not expected baclalalalail July. ... A moment of silence before the game honored the victim's of Monday's shooting spree at Virginia Tech.

One bad inning and we lose. Baseball's a rubbish game sometimes. Glorified rounders.

Score Summary

3rd Inning: Pena HOME RUN to centre (Sox 1-0 Jays)
4th Inning: Overbay single to left centre: Wells scored (S0x 1-1 Jays)
4th Inning: Zaun walked: Thomas scored

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Gus Chacin (Blue Jays) [2-0]
Losing Pitcher - Dice-K Mastuzaka (Red Sox) [1-2]
Save - Jason Frasor (Blue Jays) [1]

AL East Standings

Blue Jays: 8-5
Red Sox: 7-5
Orioles: 7-7
Yankees: 6-6
Devil Rays: 6-8

It's a shame. Tonight we play game 2. Tim Wakefield starts on the mound.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 2 @ Blue Jays

Timmy Wakefield took the mound for us against the Jays.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/18/UFEvAQKy.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

TORONTO (AP) -- A dome does wonders for Tim Wakefield's knuckleball.

Wakefield allowed four hits in seven innings and David Ortiz homered, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 4-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.

"I've always loved pitching here," Wakefield said. "The mound is probably the best mound in the American League, and pitching inside is always a big plus for me. The ball moves a little bit more inside versus outside, where you've got a lot of weather conditions that can hinder something."

Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli, who had one passed ball, said it takes extra effort to handle Wakefield's knuckler indoors.

"It's a lot more work for me," he said. "It's almost to the point where it's a little bit scary back there because I really don't know where the ball's going to go. He's throwing it hard and it's moving a lot more than normal."

Mirabelli and Mike Lowell also homered for the Red Sox, who entered with eight homers in their first 12 games.

Wakefield (2-1) struck out four, walked three and lowered his ERA to 1.35. The 40-year-old right-hander has allowed only three earned runs in 20 innings.

"He was tremendous," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "(The knuckleball) was bouncing all over the place. He was getting some awkward swings.

"Wake has a way of taking a hitter and sort of turning him inside out," he added. "Other guys get you out. Wake can put into a little bit of a funk."

Wakefield might not generate the same buzz as teammates Daisuke Matsuzaka or Curt Schilling, but Francona makes sure to give the veteran his due.

"With his style, he can go under the radar," Francona said. "From my standpoint, he can go under the radar all the way to a bunch of wins."

Ortiz went 2-for-4 with both hits going to the opposite field, something he admitted struggling with in the past.

"I'm not going to lie to you," he said. "I tried to hit that way before and it never worked."

Brendan Donnelly worked a perfect eighth and Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth for his third save, striking out pinch-hitter Adam Lind with two on to end it.

Toronto starter Tomo Ohka didn't allow a hit until Lowell homered to left with two outs in the fifth, his first of the season.

Mirabelli led off the sixth with his second home run, and Ortiz opened the seventh with his fifth.

One out later, J.D. Drew chased Ohka with a single. Victor Zambrano came on and gave up a single to Lowell, a fielder's-choice grounder to Coco Crisp and an RBI single to Mirabelli.

Mirabelli was at a loss to explain his success in Toronto, where he'lalalala five homers in 22 career games.

"I just always liked coming to this stadium," he said. "There's just something that feels good to me. When you hit the ball good, it goes. It's a fun place for me to play."

Ohka (0-2) allowed four runs and four hits in 6 1-3 innings, walked one and struck out three. He bristled at suggestions that he was trying to match Tuesday's start by fellow Japanese hurler Dice-K.

"I don't care about Matsuzaka," he said. "So what?"

Matt Stairs singled off Wakefield in the first, but the knuckleballer responded by retiring 10 straight batters before stumbling in the fourth. With two outs, he loaded the bases with consecutive walks to Frank Thomas, Lyle Overbay and Aaron Hill. After a visit from pitching coach John Farrell, Wakefield escaped by striking out Jason Phillips on four pitches.

"He was jumping a little bit, hurrying to the plate a little too much," Mirabelli said. "It just seemed like after John talked to him he gathered himself and slowed it down a little bit and the ball started coming out cleaner out of his hand."

The Blue Jays finally broke through against Wakefield in the seventh when Royce Clayton doubled and scored on John McDonald's bloop single to left.

Game notes
Ortiz appeared to have a single in the fourth when he hit a ball between first and second into short right field. But 2B Hill, playing deep with the shift on, fielded the ball and threw out Ortiz by a step. ... The Blue Jays were held to one run for the first time this season.

A great win against a useful Jays team.

Score Summary

5th Inning: Lowell HOME RUN to left (Sox 1-0 Jays)
6th Ining: Mirabelli HOME RUN to left (Sox 2-0 Jays
7th Inning: Ortiz HOME RUN to left (Sox 3-0 Jays)
7th Inning: Mirabelli single to right: Drew scored (Sox 4-0 Jays)
7th Inning: McDonald single to left: Clayton scored (Sox 4-1 Jays)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher: Tim Wakefield (Red Sox) [2-1]
Losing Pitcher: Tomo Ohka (Blue Jays) [0-2]
Save: Jonathan Papelbon (Red Sox) [3]

AL East Standings

Red Sox: 8-5
Blue Jays: 8-6
Yankees: 7-6
Orioles: 8-7
Devil Rays: 6-9

Always good to win. In other news, Jon Lester is building up his strength, potentially looking likely to return to our pitcher rotation very soon. The All Star ballot has been released. Ortiz, Ramirez, Drew, Varitek, Pedroia, Lowell and Crisp are up for voting. In about half an hour we play the Jays again.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 3 @ Blue Jays

Julian Tavarez started on the mound accoring to the Red Sox site, whilst ESPN.com says Mike Timlin started as pitcher, whch is weird. Anyway, this was our final game of the series at the Jays.

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

TORONTO (AP) -- Alex Cora saved the Boston Red Sox with his glove, then won the game with his bat.

Cora was upended on a double play, then tripled home the go-ahead run in the ninth inning as the Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-3 Thursday and headed home to Boston with a victory going into their first series of the year against the New York Yankees.

Cora, playing at shortstop, was toppled by Lyle Overbay as he made the relay throw on a 1-6-3 double play that got Mike Timlin (1-0) out of an eighth-inning jam.

Vernon Wells led off with a double and advanced on Frank Thomas' groundout. Overbay was walked intentionally to bring up Aaron Hill, who grounded back to the mound. Timlin's throw was high and wide, but Cora caught the ball and got the relay throw off before Overbay sent him flying.

"It was a tackle," Cora said. "I don't mind people going hard, but when you see the replay, he's going in with his hands up, he can't reach the bag. I don't mind when they go hard, but not with their hands up."

Cora didn't accuse Overbay of dirty play but said he doesn't enjoy being taken out.

"That's something I really don't like in the game" Cora said. "That part really bothers me sometimes."

Timlin said Cora did well to keep the throw from sailing into the outfield.

"He wasn't as close to the bag as I thought he was," Timlin said. "When I let it go I kind of short-armed the ball a little bit. He picked me up."

Coco Crisp had reached on a bunt single against Roy Halladay leading off the top of the eighth, and Manny Ramirez tied it 3-3 with his first homer of the season, a two-out drive off Shaun Marcum (1-1).

"We've all seen Manny take one swing and then get in a groove for a long time," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "That would be tremendous."

Marcum wasn't happy with the pitch to Ramirez.

"The location was terrible," Marcum said. "I think my little sister probably could have hit it just as far, if not further."

Marcum walked former-Blue Jay Eric Hinske leading off the ninth, and Dustin Pedroia bunted into a forceout. Julio Lugo pinch ran, Jason Frasor relieved and Cora tripled up the alley in left-center on an 0-1 pitch.

"You've got to focus," Cora said. "(Francona) asked me if I was all right, and I said, `Yeah, of course I'm going to be all right.' I got a good pitch to hit and put the good part of the bat on it."

Crisp followed with a sacrifice fly against Frasor, who is filling in as the Blue Jays' closer while B.J. Ryan is on the disabled list with a sprained elbow.

Jonathan Papelbon got three outs for his fourth save in as many chances and the Red Sox won for the fifth time in six games. They open a three-game series against New York on Friday night.

"This is how you get to the playoffs, by winning series," Red Sox starter Julian Tavarez said. "This is how you get to October."

Thomas and Alex Rios homered for the Blue Jays.

Halladay allowed one run and six hits in 7 1-3 innings, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the third when Ramirez grounded into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. Boston's Julian Tavarez, pitching for the first time since an April 7 start at Texas, gave up three runs and six hits in 5 1-3 innings.

"Instead of being to the point where you get a little sluggish, his ball had a lot of life," said Francona.

Hinske hit a second-inning sacrifice fly, but Thomas led off the bottom half with his 489th homer, his second this season. Rios doubled in the third to end an 0-for-15 slide and homered in the sixth. Vernon Wells chased Tavarez with an RBI double later in the inning.

Game notes
Crisp went 2-for-4 with a pair of bunt singles, raising his average to .167. ... Hill robbed Hinske of a hit with a diving stop at second to end the fourth inning. ... Ryan spoke publicly for the first time since he was put on the DL Sunday. "It wasn't right. I couldn't throw a strike," he said. "It was just something I hadn't felt in a long time, (being) out there and not able to control any part of the situation trying to make pitches." This is the first time in his nine-year career that Ryan has been on the DL. He's expected to miss six weeks.

Nice to win a series.

Score Summary

2nd Inning: Hinske sacrifice fly to left: Ramirez scored (Sox 1-0 Jays)
2nd Inning: Thomas HOME RUN to centre (Sox 1-1 Jays)
6th Inning: Rios HOME RUN to left centre (Sox 1-2 Jays)
6th Inning: Wells double to left: Lind scored (Sox 1-3 Jays)
8th Inning: Ramirez HOME RUN to centre: Crisp scored (Sox 3-3 Jays)
9th Inning: Cora triple to deep centre: Lugo scored (Sox 4-3 Jays)
9th Inning: Crisp sacrifice fly to centre: Cora scored (Sox 5-3 Jays)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher: Mike Timlin (Red Sox) [1-0]
Losing Pitcher: Shaun Marcum (Blue Jays) [1-1]
Save: Jonathan Papelbon (Red Sox) [4]

AL East Standings

Red Sox: 9-5
Yankees: 8-6
Blue Jays: 8-7
Orioles: 8-7
Devil Rays: 6-9

Nice for other players to stand up and be counted. Tonight is a major crunch. We play our first game against the Yankees tonight. The man that has never aged, Curt Schilling, takes the mound for this key game. Let's hope he can build on his current 2-1 record.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 1 v Yankees

Our first game of the year against the Yankees saw us wearing nice green uniforms in memory of Celtic legend Red Auerbach, and Kyle Snyder pitching.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/21/Btty37WN.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

BOSTON (AP) -- The ball went over the wall, and Coco Crisp went with it. He didn't do much more than tip it, but he impressed his teammates all the same.

"What we saw was one of the better efforts I've ever seen," said Red Sox reliever Brendan Donnelly, who was in the bullpen when Crisp toppled over the wall in pursuit of Alex Rodriguez's second homer of the game. "He didn't get the ball, but he made a statement to the team."

"It's perfect, isn't it?"

Crisp got up from his fifth-inning collision with the short bullpen wall and tripled in the tying runs in the eighth, scoring the game-winner on Alex Cora's blooper over a drawn-in infield to help Boston beat the New York Yankees 7-6 on Friday night.

"It's pretty much status quo for him. It was a tremendous effort," said Kyle Snyder (1-0), who allowed one walk and struck out one while getting two outs in the eighth for the win. "It's nice to see him come up with some clutch hits at the end. He deserves them."

Even after going 2-for-4 with a pair of bunt singles on Thursday, Crisp entered the game with just a .167 average. He singled in the seventh and then came up against Mariano Rivera (1-2) in the eighth with two on and two in and bounced a triple down the right-field line to make it 6-6.

"I thought I was going to catch that ball," Crisp said. "It definitely feels good to come back and put some runs up after I couldn't take those away."

Alex Cora followed with his second go-ahead hit in as many days, handing Rivera his second consecutive blown save. The Yankees closer hadn't pitched since Marco Scutaro hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning against him for Oakland on Sunday.

"I'm always going to be shocked, only because of what he is and his track record," New York manager Joe Torre said. "It hurts. We had good momentum going and it looked like we were beating a good pitcher tonight."

Rivera allowed two runs and three hits, striking out one in two-thirds of an inning. With closer Jonathan Papelbon unavailable after pitching in each of the previous two games, Hideki Okajima pitched the ninth for his first major league save.

Okajima retired Derek Jeter on a groundout and walked Bobby Abreu before Rodriguez lined out to second base. Kevin Thompson struck out to end the game.

Rodriguez homered twice to join Mike Schmidt, who hit 12 homers in the first 15 games in 1976, as the fastest to reach a dozen in baseball history. Rodriguez, who halalalala safely in all 15 games this year and homered in four straight, also leads the majors with 30 RBIs and 65 total bases.

"You run out of words and superlatives of what he's into right now," Torre said.

J.D. Drew had three hits for Boston, which trailed 5-2 before David Ortiz led off the eighth with a double and Manny Ramirez walked. Drew moved the runners up, then Mike Lowell singled to make it 6-3 and bring in Rivera.

Jason Varitek, who hit a two-run homer in the fourth, singled to make it 6-4, then Crisp tripled down the right-field line to tie it. With the infield in, Cora fisted a blooper over Jeter's head to the back of the infield dirt, driving in the go-ahead run.

The Red Sox wore green uniforms to honor late Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach, with black "VT" patches in memory of those who died at Virginia Tech. And the Red Sox played more like the franchise that won the 16 championship banners that hung from the Green Monster before the game instead of the one that had the second-worst record in the NBA this season.

Rodriguez flied out to the warning track in the second inning, then homered to left to lead off the fourth. Jeter and Abreu singled in the fifth before Rodriguez made it 5-2, sending Curt Schilling's pitch and Crisp over the wall.

Rodriguez moved past Willie Stargell and Stan Musial into the top 25 on baseball's all-time homer list with 476.

Yankees catcher Jorge Posada injured his left thumb while catching and left the game in the middle of the fourth inning; X-rays were negative. Will Nieves replaced him behind the plate and threw Drew out trying to steal second.

Game notes
It was Rodriguez's second multi-homer game of the season and the 46th of his career. ... The Red Sox hired former infielder Gary DiSarcina to manage their Single-A team in Lowell. ... Boston ended a streak of nine straight games allowing three runs or fewer. ... The Red Sox snapped a seven-game home losing streak against the Yankees, including an epic five-game sweep last August that effectively ended the AL East race. ... According to a New York Post report, broadcaster Bobby Murcer is tentatively scheduled to return to the booth during New York's series in Texas May 1-3. Murcer, 60, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in December and had surgery to remove the growth on Dec. 28. He has successfully undergone radiation and chemotherapy treatment.

A-Rod may be good, but he can't win a game on his own.

Score Summary

3rd Inning: Damon grounded out to shortstop: Cano scored (Yanks 1-0 Sox)
4th Inning: A-Rod HOME RUN to left (Yanks 2-0 Sox)
4th Inning: Varitek HOME RUN to centre: Lowell scored (Yanks 2-2 Sox)
5th Inning: A-Rod HOME RUN to right centre: Jeter and Abreu scored (Yanks 5-2 Sox)
8th Inning: Giambi single to right: A-Rod scored (Yanks 6-2 Sox)
8th Inning: Lowell single to left: Ortiz scored (Yanks 6-3 Sox)
8th Inning: Varitek single to right: Ramirez scored (Yanks 6-4 Sox)
8th Inning: Crisp triple to right: Lowell and Varitek scored (Yanks 6-6 Sox)
8th Inning: Cora single to centre: Crisp scored (Yanks 6-7 Sox)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Kyle Snyder (Red Sox) [1-0]
Losing Pitcher - Mariano Rivera (NY Yankees) [1-2]
Save - Hideki Okajima (Red Sox) [1]

AL East Standings

Red Sox: 10-5
Orioles: 9-7
Yankees: 8-7
Blue Jays: 8-8
Devil Rays: 6-10

Always nice to beat a powerhouse. Tonight, we play again. Josh Beckett is pencilled in to start on the mound, and all Sox fans hope he can continue his hot 3-0 record, and then Papelbon will come in for another save in as many opportunities.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 2 v Yankees

Our second game of the series against the Yanks saw us not needing any heroic comebacks. Just some good old hitting from Big Papi.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/21/r6A4oKDr.jpg

BOSTON (AP) -- The Red Sox managed to keep Alex Rodriguez from hitting another home run. The Yankees can't say the same about David Ortiz.

Ortiz had a two-run homer and four RBIs, and Josh Beckett settled down to help Boston beat New York 7-5 Saturday for its second consecutive victory over the Yankees. It was Ortiz's fourth homer in seven games and his 12th in the past two years against New York.

"Any time he comes up, you're playing with fire," Yankees starter Jeff Karstens said.

Rodriguez went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI single to extend hilalalalaing streak to 21 games dating to last season. But a day after he hit two home runs to match the fastest start in baseball history -- 12 homers in the first 15 games -- his home run streak was snapped at four straight games.

Rodriguez was on deck, the potential tying run, when Jonathan Papelbon got Bobby Abreu on a line drive to center field to end it. Papelbon got three outs for his fifth save in as many tries.

"To not have it get to Alex ... it was starting to get to decision time," said Boston manager Terry Francona, whose team has won four straight and seven of eight. "The fewer decisions you have to make, the better."

Beckett (4-0) allowed a pair of runs in each of the first two innings, but retired 15 out of 17 batters before allowing three straight baserunners with two outs in the seventh to cut Boston's lead to 7-5. Hideki Okajima struck out Jason Giambi to end the threat.

Beckett, who allowed a total of three earned runs while winning each of his first three starts, gave up five runs in all against the Yankees -- four earned. He allowed nine hits, walked two and struck out seven to pick up his career-high fourth consecutive win.

"It was a heavyweight fight the first couple of innings," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "Once Beckett got the lead, he settled in."

The Red Sox also scored two in each of the first two innings against Karstens (0-1), and they kept on scoring. He allowed seven runs and nine hits, striking out one with two walks, one of them to Kevin Youkilis with two outs in the fourth before Ortiz hit a two-run homer that turned a one-run game into a 7-4 lead.

"Him and Manny [Ramirez]. Both of them have done so much damage to us over the years," Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter said. "We'd love to always face them with nobody on base. That's why their first two hitters are so important."

On Friday night, the Red Sox rallied from a 6-2 deficit with five runs in the eighth inning to beat the Yankees in the opener of the three-game series. Sunday's finale will feature Japanese star Daisuke Matsuzaka against New York rookie Chase Wright.

"It's the Yankees vs. the Red Sox," Torre said. "We don't sit up at night to see who they're pitching."<

Game notes
Boston LF Manny Ramirez made an interesting move to hop over Rodriguez's double off the Green Monster, either trying to get out of the way or trying to stop it with his foot. ... OF Coco Crisp, DH Ortiz and third-base coach DeMarlo Hale will wear No. 42 on Sunday for Boston's rain-delayed tribute to Jackie Robinson. ... Ortiz's 179th homer as a Red Sox moved him ahead of Nomar Garciaparra and into 10th place on the team's career list. ... Yankees SS Derek Jeter singled in the first inning to extend hilalalalaing streak to 12 games. ... Yankees closer Mariano Rivera got a standing ovation from the fans in the right-field corner when he went out to the bullpen in the fifth. ... Coco Crisp and Alex Cora had consecutive bunt singles in the second inning, and both scored as the Red Sox rallied to tie it at 4. ... Injured Yankees RHP Mike Mussina (strained left hamstring) threw 30 pitches off flat ground. His next step could be a rehab stint. RHP Carl Pavano (right forearm stiffness) played catch from 60 feet and will do it again before determining what to do next. ... Yankees CF Johnny Damon was out of the lineup with a sore back and hamstring. C Jorge Posada sat out after bruising his thumb on Friday night.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Score Summary

1st Inning: Giambi single to center: Jeter scored (Yanks 1-0 Sox)
1st Inning: Cano single to shallow right: Abreu scored (Yanks 2-0 Sox)
1st Inning: Ortiz double to deep right: Lugo and Youkilis scored (Yanks 2-2 Sox)
2nd Inning: Cabrera single to centre: Thompson scored (Yanks 3-2 Sox)
2nd Inning: Jeter grounded into double play: Nieves scored (Yanks 4-2 Sox)
2nd Inning: Lugo grounded out to second: Crisp scored (Yanks 4-3 Sox)
2nd Inning: Youkilis single to left: Cora scored (Yanks 4-4 Sox)
4th Inning: Lugo grounded out to shortstop: Crisp scored (Yanks 4-5 Sox)
4th Inning: Ortiz HOME RUN to right: Youkilis scored (Yanks 4-7 Sox)
7th Inning: A-Rod single to right: Jeter scored (Yanks 5-7 Sox)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Josh Beckett (Red Sox) [4-0]
Losing Pitcher - Jeff Karstens (Yankees) [0-1]
Save - Jonathan Papelbon (Red Sox) [5]

AL East Standings

Red Sox: 11-5
Orioles: 10-7
Yankees: 8-8
Blue Jays: 8-9
Devil Rays: 7-10

Very good indeed. Tonight sees us play our final game of the series. Dice-K will take the mound, looking to improve his current 1-2 record.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 3 v Yankees

Here's a quick question. When was the last time we swept the Yankees at Fenway? The answer: 1990. Until now.

[img]http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/23/DldbCSEB.jpg/img]

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

BOSTON (AP) -- It took the Boston Red Sox 10 pitches to hit four straight homers and three days to complete a sweep of the New York Yankees.

In another thrilling chapter in a rich rivalry, the Red Sox tied a major league record with the home run streak and got their third consecutive comeback win with a 7-6 victory Sunday night despite Daisuke Matsuzaka's shaky debut against the Yankees.

"It certainly brought some life back into the ballpark in a hurry," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said of the third-inning homers off rookie Chase Wright that gave Boston a 4-3 lead.

Mike Lowell hit one of those homers, then connected for a go-ahead, three-run shot in the seventh.

"I haven't been part of anything like that, not even in Little League," Lowell said. "The dugout was going crazy. It was really a cool feeling."

Second baseman Dustin Pedroia made a diving catch to preserve the lead in the eighth inning, and Jonathan Papelbon retired Alex Rodriguez on a game-ending grounder with a runner on, finishing Boston's first sweep of New York in Fenway Park since 1990.

"It speaks to we're a good team," Lowell said. "I don't think it means anything for the next five months."

The sweep was a bit of revenge for the Red Sox. Last August, the Yankees swept a five-game series at Fenway to take control of the AL East race.

This time, first-place Boston moved four games ahead of the third-place Yankees.

"We didn't play well and we lost three games," Derek Jeter said. "But we've got 147 left."

Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Lowell and Jason Varitek connected against Wright, making his second major league start.

"I tried to stay calm and cool," Wright said. "I was just thinking: Attack the next hitter."

Then, with the Yankees leading 5-4 in the seventh, Lowell's homer off Scott Proctor (0-1) just cleared the Green Monster in left field for a 7-5 lead.

"It's a concern," Yankees manager Joe Torre said of his relievers, who squandered a four-run lead in Friday's 7-6 loss. "We had the first game in hand and we let it get away from us."

Jeter hit his first home run of the season for New York to tie it at 4 in the fifth after Jason Giambi drove in three runs. But the Yankees' bullpen failed -- even with starter Andy Pettitte making his second relief appearance of the year.

Matsuzaka (2-2) had his worst outing in four big league starts, allowing six runs in seven-plus innings. He finally got some offensive support, though. In his previous two starts, the Red Sox totaled just one run.

"There's no way I can be satisfied," he said through a translator. "What I wanted most of all was to hold that lead and I couldn't do that."

The right-hander left after giving up a leadoff single in the eighth to Rodriguez, who halalalala safely in all 17 games this season. Rodriguez scored on a force play at second, but Pedroia made a backhand grab on a liner by pinch-hitter Josh Phelps, stranding Robinson Cano at third.

"I kind of cheated up the middle, and he hit it really hard," Pedroia said. "Anytime you sweep the Yankees, you're doing something right."

Papelbon pitched the ninth for his sixth save in as many chances, and second in two days.

Lowell's third homer of the season followed a single by Ramirez and a double by Drew, chasing Proctor after he failed to retire a batter. The Red Sox, who have won five straight overall, batted .363 in the series against New York's injury-depleted pitching staff.

The crowd of 36,905 was the second-largest at Fenway since World War II, though the Red Sox have added seating capacity annually the last several years. The attendance last June 10 against Texas was 36,920.

The third-inning outburst made the Red Sox the fifth team in major league history to hit four homers in a row. The Los Angeles Dodgers did it on Sept. 18 last season against San Diego. Drew hit the second of those four homers as well. It was the second homer of the season for all four Boston batters.

Wright became the second big league pitcher to allow four consecutive homers. The other was Paul Foytack of the Los Angeles Angels on July 31, 1963, in the sixth inning of the second game of a doubleheader against Cleveland. One of those homers walalalala by Tito Francona, the father of current Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who turned 48 on Sunday.

Wright also tied a major league record for most homers allowed in an inning. He was the first pitcher to give up four since Randy Johnson of the Yankees on Aug. 21, 2005, against the Chicago White Sox.

Wright, who hadn't pitched above Class A before this season, was called up because starters Mike Mussina and Chien-Ming Wang are on the disabled list.

After his sluggers gave him a lead, Matsuzaka allowed Jeter's tying homer and a go-ahead run in the sixth on singles by Cano and Doug Mientkiewicz and a double-play grounder by Melky Cabrera.

Game notes
The Red Sox celebrated Jackie Robinson Day a week late with a pregame ceremony. The 60th anniversary of Robinson's major league debut was observed at other stadiums on April 15, but Boston's home game that day against the Los Angeles Angels was rained out. Three members of the Red Sox -- DH David Ortiz, CF Coco Crisp and third base coach DeMarlo Hale -- wore Robinson's No. 42. ... It was Lowell's 12th multihomer game and first since May 20, 2004, for Florida. ... Jeter extended hilalalalaing streak to 13 games. ... Bobby Abreu struck out three times against Matsuzaka.

What a great result.

Score Summary

1st: Giambi double to deep center: A-Rod and Abreu scored (Yanks 2-0 Sox)
3rd: Giambi single to right: Damon scored (Yanks 3-0 Sox)
3rd: Ramirez HOME RUN to left centre (Yanks 3-1 Sox)
3rd: Drew HOME RUN to right centre (Yanks 3-2 Sox)
3rd: Lowell HOME RUN to left (Yanks 3-3 Sox)
3rd: Varitek HOME RUN to left (Yanks 3-4 Sox)
5th: Jeter HOME RUN to left (Yanks 4-4 Sox)
6th: Cabrera grounded into double play: Cano scored (Yanks 5-4 Sox)
7th: Lowell HOME RUN to left: Ramirez and Drew scored (Yanks 5-7 Sox)
8th: Cabrera grounded into fielder's choice to first: A-Rod scored (Yanks 6-7 Sox)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Dice-K Matsuzaka (Red Sox) [2-2]
Losing Pitcher - Scott Proctor (Yankees) [0-1]
Save - Jonathan Papelbon (Red Sox) [6]

AL East Standings

Red Sox: 12-5
Orioles: 11-7
Yankees: 8-9
Blue Jays: 8-10
Devil Rays: 7-11

After that sensational sweep, we hopefully will gather some momentum going into our next series, a 2 gamer at home to the Blue Jays. In the first of two games, Tim Wakefield will start on the mound.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 1 v Blue Jays

This was our first loss in ages, which stops our winning streak at 5.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/23/ziPUJmU7.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

BOSTON (AP) -- Homers ended the Boston's five-game winning streak, one day after the Red Sox tied a major league record by hitting four in a row.

Frank Thomalalalala his 490th homer, a go-ahead, two-run drive off Tim Wakefield in the sixth inning that led Toronto to a 7-3 victory Monday night over a Red Sox team that lacked the power and passion that produced a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees.

"It just seemed like it was a lethargic day," Boston's Doug Mirabelli said. "There wasn't the energy that we've had."

Boston reliever Mike Timlin disagreed that the 7-6 win over the Yankees on Sunday night contributed to a letdown.

"To me, that's just an excuse," he said. "We just got beat."

Aaron Hill had four hits, including a two-run homer in the ninth off Timlin, as Toronto ended a five-game losing streak. Hill has four homers in 19 games after getting six in 155 last year.

"It was good to go out and get everything right," he said. "It's good to see the Big Man hitting his homers. It got us going."

Tomo Ohka (1-2) allowed three runs -- two earned -- and six hits in five-plus innings to win in a rematch with Wakefield of Boston's 4-1 victory at Toronto last Wednesday. It was his first win in eight starts since Aug. 24 at Colorado.

Jason Frasor, filling in for injured closer B.J. Ryan, got his second save. Ryan was moved from the 15-day to the 60-day disabled list Monday,

"It's not going to be easy" without Ryan, Toronto manager John Gibbons said, "but you've got to do it."

Wakefield (2-2) gave up four runs -- three earned -- and eight hits in six innings. His ERA rose from an AL-best 1.35 to 2.08.

"He pitched well, but his knuckleball wasn't the nasty knuckleball that he's had," Mirabelli said.

Wakefield's teammates didn't hit any homers to support him after Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek connected in the third inning of Boston's win Sunday night.

"I guess the wind was blowing out pretty good, but it didn't help those balls. Those balls were hit pretty good," Gibbons said.

Thomas' homer gave Toronto a 3-2 lead.

"He smoked that thing," Gibbons said.

With Vernon Wells at first and a threat to steal, Wakefield rushed his delivery.

"I just left the ball up," Wakefield said. "That's probably the turning point."

Thomas is three homers behind Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff, who are tied for 21st, and 10 away from 500.

"That's always been a goal of mine," said Thomas, who ilalalalaing just .232 with three homers in his first season with Toronto. "There's 10 more to go, but that's a long way to go. I don't want to be done after this year, though."

Lowell went 2-for-3 to improve his batting average to .323 but the third baseman continued his struggles in the field. His error in the second was his sixth in 36 chances. He has just six errors all last season when he had 462 chances and was second in AL fielding percentage to Oakland's Eric Chavez.

Dustin Pedroia, 1-for-28 before getting two hits Sunday, put Boston ahead 2-1 with a two-run double in the fourth. Wakefield allowed just four runs in 25 innings entering the sixth, when he gave up Thomas' second homer against the Red Sox this season and Jason Phillips' RBI single.

Boston cut the lead to 4-3 when Lowell scored on shortstop Royce Clayton's throwing error in the sixth. Adam Lind hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth.

Game notes
Boston CF Wily Mo Pena struck out in five straight at-bats before hitting into a forceout in the fourth. ... John McDonald had three hits for Toronto. ... Boston's Julio Lugo went 0-for-5 and is in a 2-for-23 slump. ... Mirabelli, the personal catcher for knuckleballer Wakefield, had his third straight two-hit game.

Can't win them all.

Score Summary

1st: Wells stole third: Wells scored on throwing error by Mirabelli (Jays 1-0 Sox)
4th: Pedroia double to deep centre: Drew and Pena scored (Jays 1-2 Sox)
6th: Thomas HOME RUN to left: Wells scored (Jays 3-2 Sox)
6th: Phillips single to left: Hill scored (Jays 4-2 Sox)
6th: Lugo safe at first on throwing error by Clayton: Lowell scored (Jays 4-3 Sox)
8th: Lind hit sacrifice fly to right: Hill scored (Jays 5-3 Sox)
9th: Hill HOME RUN to centre: Wells scored (Jays 7-3 Sox)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Tomo Ohka (Blue Jays) [1-2]
Losing Pitcher - Tim Wakefield (Red Sox) [2-2]
Save - Jason Frasor (Blue Jays) [2]

AL East Standings

Red Sox: 12-6
Orioles: 11-8
Blue Jays: 9-10
Yankees: 8-10
Devil Rays: 8-11

It's OK to lose every so often. So long as it doesn't turn into a huge losing streak like last season. Tonight is the second game of the series, and we will look to rectify the situation against the Jays. Julian Tavarez is scheduled to start on the mound.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 1 @ Orioles

I'm going for consistency with game updates, but I may miss the odd one. Just so you know. Anyway, after being swept by the Blue Jays in our 2 game series, we were looking to come back with a bang, with Curt Schilling on the mound.

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Daniel Cabrera limited the Boston Red Sox to one run before he walked off the mound in the seventh inning with the score tied, leaving the outcome to be decided by a Baltimore bullpen that during the offseason received a $42 million makeover.

On this night, the Orioles didn't get their money's worth.

Curt Schilling pitched seven innings of five-hit ball, David Ortiz drove in the tiebreaking with a bloop single in the seventh, and the Red Sox pulled away to a 6-1 victory Wednesday.

Cabrera (1-2) left after getting two outs and walking two batters. Jamie Walker came in to face Ortiz, who worked the count to 3-2 before plopping an opposite-field single in front of charging left fielder Jay Payton, giving the Red Sox the lead for good.

"He fought off some good pitches, and [Walker] actually made a good pitch on the last one," Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo said. "He just flared one in on us. Not much you can do about that."

Ortiz is known for his towering home runs, but on this at-bat a single was all the Red Sox needed.

"David's at-bat was tremendous. The deeper he got into the count, it looked like the more dangerous he got," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "He did not crush that ball, but it looked like he stayed on it enough to find some outfield grass, and we extended the inning."

Manny Ramirez then stopped an 0-for-12 drought with an RBI single off Chad Bradford, who forced in a run by walking J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell.

Walker and Bradford are part of a $42 million makeover the Baltimore bullpen received during the offseason. Before facing the Red Sox, the duo had given up two runs in 17 1/3 innings.

"We did a good job against a good bullpen," Francona said.

"I thought Jamie had a good battle there and Chad didn't quite have the command he normally does," Perlozzo said. "They're not going to pitch great every time they're out there. That's just a fact."

After losing two straight to Toronto by a combined 17-6 score, Boston scored five runs over the final three innings to avoid its first three-game skid of the season. Alex Cora hit his first homer for the Red Sox, who have won 16 of their last 19 games against the Orioles.

Baltimore has lost three straight after winning four in a row.

Schilling (3-1) gave up one run, struck out three and walked two. The 40-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Miguel Tejada but allowed only one other batter beyond second base.

Schilling may not have the arm strength he possessed in his prime, but he still knows how to change speeds and fool batters.

"I have not pitched like this since 1992. I am not that 96 [mph] guy anymore," Schilling said. "I can be effective and I can get outs and I can go deep in games and I can finish games just as easily with the stuff I am throwing now. There will be days when I feel better than others."

He felt very good about helping Boston end its mini-slide.

"This was a good win. We lost two in a row, and when you are in a rotation like this something you do not expect to see are losing streaks," Schilling said. "Everybody on this team can be a stopper."

Boston added two runs in the ninth off rookie Jim Johnson. Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly on a drive that center field Corey Patterson caught by leaping to the top of the wall, and Lowell hit an RBI single.

Cora gave the Red Sox a 1-0 lead with his second homer since August 15, 2005, a drive that landed in the front row of the right-field bleachers.

It was the first home run yielded by Cabrera in five starts this season. He had pitched 57 2/3 innings without surrendering a homer, dating to Sept. 6.

Cora went 2-for-2 against Cabrera and is 11-for-18 (.611) in his career against the right-hander.

Cabrera walked two in the sixth but got out of trouble by striking out Jason Varitek with a rising 3-2 fastball. The 6-foot-9 pitcher hopped off the mound and pumped his fist before heading to the dugout.

Tejada homered in the bottom half to make it 1-1. It was his home run of the season; the first came on Opening Day in Minnesota.

Game notes
Sgt. Mark Ecker II, who lost parts of both his legs while serving in the war in Iraq, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Players from both teams stood and cheered during his introduction. ... Orioles 3B Melvin Mora was omitted from the starting lineup for the first time this season, in part because he's 3-for-25 lifetime against Schilling. ... Schilling is 4-0 in his last five starts against Baltimore.

Great win against an interesting bullpen.

Score Summary

3rd: Cora HOME RUN to right (Sox 1-0 O's)
6th: Tejeda HOME RUN to left (Sox 1-1 O's)
7th: Ortiz single to left centre: Pena scored (Sox 2-1 O's)
7th: Ramirez single to right centre: Youkilis scored (Sox 3-1 O's)
7th: Lowell walked: Ortiz scored (Sox 4-1 O's)
9th: Ramirez sacrifice fly to centre: Youkilis scored (Sox 5-1 O's)
9th: Lowell single to shallow left: Ortiz scored (Sox 6-1 O's)

Pitchers

Winnig Pitcher - Curt Schilling (Red Sox) [3-1]
Losing Pitcher - Daniel Cabrera (Orioles) [1-2]

AL East Standings

Red Sox: 13-7
Orioles: 11-10
Blue Jays: 10-10
Devil Rays: 9-12
Yankees: 8-11

Tonight Josh Beckett pitchers. Here's a story about the saga of Schilling's sock:

Is The Blood Real?

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

BALTIMORE -- The story of Curt Schilling's famous bloody socks from the 2004 playoffs is turning into a bloody mess after a prominent broadcaster claimed one of Schilling's teammates acknowledged the blood wasn't real.

Was it blood ... or something else? Curt Schilling's sock from Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS is once more the topic of conversation.For those who have somehow forgotten, here's what happened: Schilling, who had a right ankle tendon injury, had sutures stitched into his ankle to keep the tendon stable so he could pitch in Game 6 against the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series. A red stain, presumably blood, could be seen on the sock during the game, which the Red Sox won.

Schilling repeated the feat in Game 2 of the World Series and the bloody sock from that game was sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., after the Red Sox won their first series title since 1918.

Fast-forward to Wednesday night's Mid-Atlantic Sports Network's telecast of Red Sox-Orioles.

In the bottom of the fifth, according to multiple media reports, Orioles play-by-play man Gary Thorne said on the air that he had been told by Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli that the substance was paint, not blood.

"The great story we were talking about the other night was that famous red stocking that he wore when they finally won, the blood on his stocking," Thorne told broadcast partner and Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer, according to media reports.

"Nah," Thorne said. "It was painted. Doug Mirabelli confessed up to it after. It was all for PR. Two-ball, two-strike count."

Two innings later, according to media reports, Thorne explained Mirabelli had told him the story "a couple of years ago."

"Go ask him [Mirabelli]," Thorne said.

After the game, Mirabelli flatly and angrily denied Thorne's story.

"What? Are you kidding me? He's [expletive] lying. A straight lie," Mirabelli said, according to The Boston Globe. "I never said that. I know it was blood. Everybody knows it was blood."

"It gets stupider," Schilling added, according to the newspaper. "I got the 9-inch scar for you. You can see it. ... There are some bad people in your line of work, man."

Red Sox manager Terry Francona also questioned Thorne's version of the story.

"What Schill did that night on the sports field was one of the most incredible feats I ever witnessed," Francona said, according to The Globe. "[Thorne's remarks] go so far past disappointing. Disrespectful to Schill, to his vocation. I'm stunned.

"I am just floored. Schill takes his share of shots, and this one is so far below the belt that I'm embarrassed and I wish somebody would have had the good conscience to ask me," Francona said, according to the newspaper.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 2 @ Orioles

Josh Beckett was looking to improve his 4-0 record and become the first Red Sock to go 5-0 in April since Pedro Martinez.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/27/vPogMjWu.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Wily Mo Pena was standing in the on-deck circle when an intentional walk loaded the bases. Pena had struggled all season against right-handed pitching, which did not bode well for his matchup against Baltimore closer Chris Ray.

"I had to go in there and be patient, take one pitch to hit," Pena said.

That pitch was a fastball, and Pena launched it an estimated 430 feet. The eighth-inning grand slam capped a rally that provided the Boston Red Sox with a 5-2 victory Thursday night.

Josh Beckett became the majors' first five-game winner, allowing two runs and eight hits in eight innings to help the Red Sox complete a two-game sweep.

Boston trailed 2-1 before Pena delivered his third career grand slam. He came into the game batting .120, including 1-for-20 against right-handers.

"It has been tough. The last couple weeks I hadn't been swinging well," he said. "I had to keep my head up."

Manny Ramirez opened the Boston eighth with a walk off John Parrish. Ray (2-2) entered with one out and promptly gave up a double to Mike Lowell before walking Jason Varitek to bring up Pena, who slammed a 2-1 fastball for his second homer of the season.

"He just put it in there. I swing," Pena said. "When I swing I knew it was gone."

Pena is a fastball hitter, but that's also Ray's best pitch.

"You don't want to get beat on your second-best pitch," Ray said.

It was the first time Ray entered before the ninth inning this season, but he was working on four days rest and Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo was desperate to end Baltimore's three-game skid.

"We were trying to win that ballgame at all costs and he was fresh," Perlozzo said. "We pulled everything out we could and it just didn't work."

Ray lamented the hanging slider that Lowell hit and said the pitch to Pena also missed its mark.

"I tried to go inside and didn't go inside far enough," Ray said, "and he was just sitting on a fastball."

Before that at-bat, Boston was 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Beckett (5-0) gave up five doubles but became the 11th Red Sox pitcher to win his first five starts in a season. He joins a list that includes Babe Ruth, Roger Clemens, Lefty Grove and Pedro Martinez.

"He pitched a whale of game," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "He wanted to go out and finish that. He probably could have."

Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth for his seventh save in seven tries. In nine career appearances against Baltimore, the right-hander has a spotless ERA, two wins and six saves.

Melvin Mora had two doubles and drove in a run for the Orioles, who are 3-17 against Boston since the start of the 2006 season.

Orioles starter Adam Loewen gave up one run, struck out five and walked five in six innings. The only hits he allowed were a fourth-inning single to J.D. Drew and a single in the sixth by Kevin Youkilis.

Down 2-0 in the sixth, the Red Sox used a single by Youkilis and two walks to load the bases with no outs. After Drew popped out, Lowell drove in a run with a broken-bat roller to third. That put runners at second and third for Varitek, who struck out.

Danys Baez entered in the seventh for Baltimore and gave up a leadoff double to Pen before walking Youkilis with two outs to put runners at the corners. Parrish came in and retired David Ortiz on a comebacker.

That only delayed the inevitable: another Boston win over Baltimore.

The Orioles got a first-inning run when Brian Robertlalalala a leadoff double, stole third and scored on a groundout by Nick Markakis.

In the top of the third, Loewen issued three straight two-out walks before retiring Ortiz on a groundout.

Baltimore made it 2-0 in the bottom half. In his initial at-bat of the season following a stint on the disabled list, Ramon Hernandez doubled on the first pitch from Beckett and came home on a two-out double by Mora.

Hernandez also singled in the seventh.

Game notes
The Orioles designated catcher Alberto Castillo for assignment to make room for Hernandez. ... Lowell went 1-for-4, extending hilalalalaing streak to 12 games. ... It was the seventh time that Mora hit two doubles in a game. ... Orioles DH Jay Gibbons went 0-for-4 and ilalalalaless in his last 16 at-bats.

So a 5-0 record for Beckett. Nice one.

Score Summary

1st: Markakis grounded out to second: Roberts scored (Sox 0-1 O's)
3rd: Mora double to left: Hernandez scored (Sox 0-2 O's)
6th: Lowell grounded out to third: Youkilis scored (Sox 1-2 O's)
8th: Pena HOME RUN to centre: Ramirez, Lowell and Varitek scored (Sox 5-2 O's)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Josh Beckett (Red Sox) [5-0]
Losing Pitcher - Chris Ray (Orioles) [2-2]
Save - Jonathan Papelbon (Red Sox) [7]

AL East Standings

Red Sox: 14-7
Blue Jays: 11-10
Orioles: 11-11
Devil Rays: 9-13
Yankees: 8-12

And we welcome back Dice-K and A-Rod, for the first series this season at Yankee Stadiumin New York. Come on the Sox.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 1 @ Yankees

After 3 close wins, imagine my surprise when I switched on Eurosport 2 this morning and heard the announcer say 'the Red Sox won 11-4. The Yankees are now 6 and a half games on the division leading Red Sox.'

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

NEW YORK (AP) -- At this rate, the Boston Red Sox will blow the New York Yankees out of the AL East race before summer.

Daisuke Matsuzaka overcame control problems to defeat the Yankees for the second time in six days, and Kevin Youkilis and Julio Lugo homered. With a come-from-behind 11-4 victory over Andy Pettitte on Friday night, Boston improved to 4-0 against its longtime rival this season.

"Things can turn around at a moment's notice," said Kevin Youkilis, whose two-run homer started Boston's outburst. "We can't really worry about what they're doing. We have to do what we do best and hope that we keep winning."

New York (8-13), whose April began to unravel with three straight losses at Fenway Park last weekend, has lost seven consecutive games for the first time since the last week of the 2000 season. The Yankees are a $195 million last-place team, 6 1/2 games back of the division-leading Red Sox.

Yankees captain Derek Jeter said it was too early to panic.

"This is when you find out how good a team is," he said. "Things are going your way, it's easy to say: `Oh, this team is good. They just won 10 in a row.' This is when you find out about teams. We'll see how good we are."

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner hasn't commented on the slide.

"He won't say anything tonight. We'll see if he has anything to say tomorrow," spokesman Howard Rubenstein said.

It's come to this for New York: Mariano Rivera, who doesn't have a save this season, was sent in to get some work in the ninth and allowed four of five batters to reach. He gave up four runs and got just one out, raising his ERA to 12.15.

"I'm missing up. I'm missing down. I'm missing everywhere," he said.

Given a 4-2 lead after the Yankees scored four in the fourth, Pettitte (1-1) immediately gave it back, forcing in the tying run with a bases-loaded walk and allowing the go-ahead run to score on a wild pitch.

"It's as frustrating as you can get. It's embarrassing is what it is," Pettitte said. "It's a joke that I can't go out there and get through six or seven innings right there when the team needs me to do that as bad as they do."

Pettitte allowed five runs, six hits and five walks in 4 2-3 innings, making it 11 times in 21 games that New York's starters failed to pitch five innings.

"We're just not a good baseball team right now," Jason Giambi said. "We just need to somehow get in synch."

Matsuzaka (3-2) beat New York 7-6 in Boston last Sunday to complete the sweep. Making his first appearance at Yankee Stadium, Dice-K wasn't particularly sharp but he got the job done. He gave up four runs and five hits in six innings, striking out seven.

"After my teammates rallied back to score some runs, I just wanted to live up to my end," he said through a translator.

Jeter returned to the Yankees' lineup after sitting out Thursday with a thigh injury and had three of New York's seven hits. Coco Crisp was in Boston's lineup after missing five starts with abdominal tightness and went 2-for-5 with an RBI single in the ninth.

Youkilis' third-inning homer gave Boston the lead, but the Yankees stopped their scoreless streak at 13 innings in the fourth after Matsuzaka loaded the bases on three walks with none out. Jorge Posada blooped an opposite-field single in front of a sliding Manny Ramirez in left, and Johnny Damon hit a soft single on a 3-2 pitch with two outs, a ball that dropped in front of right fielder J.D. Drew. Jeter hit a pitch off the end of his bat past a diving Youkilis at first for a 4-2 lead.

Matsuzaka needed 42 pitches to get through three innings, but threw 41 in the fourth.

"If I got into all the things that happened in the fourth inning, it would be a very long story," Matsuzaka said. "So to keep a long story short, I think there are technically a few things I need to work on."

Then it was Pettitte's turn to lose control.

Lugo, who had three hits, three RBIs and three runs, walked with one out in the fifth and came home on David Ortiz's single. Ramirez walked to load the bases and, after Drew struck out, Pettitte forced in the tying run with a walk to Mike Lowell.

With a 1-1 count on Jason Varitek, Pettitte bounced a wild pitch that hit the glove of Posada and rolled under the catcher as Ortiz came in with the go-ahead run. After Pettitte reloaded the bases with a walk to Varitek, Scott Proctor relieved and got Crisp to fly out on his first pitch.

Lugo homered off Proctor for a 6-4 lead in the sixth. He had not homered in 240 at-bats since July 22 against Baltimore, when he connected twice in Tampa Bay's 10-run fifth inning.

"It's good for us to beat them," he said.

Game notes
Boston LHP Jon Lester allowed three walks in five shutout innings for Triple-A Pawtucket against Buffalo in what was expected to be his second-to-last rehab outing before he returns to the Boston rotation. Coming back from chemotherapy to treat cancer of the lymph system, Lester was 0-0 with a 2.98 ERA in three appearances with Class-A Greenville. ... Bobby Abreu was 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and a double-play grounder and is in a 1-for-23 slide. ... Giambi will start at 1B on Saturday against Tim Wakefield.

Great win. Now we have a 4-0 record against the Yankees.

Score Summary

3rd: Youkilis HOME RUN to left: Lugo scored (Sox 2-0 Yanks)
4th: Posada single to left: A-Rod scored (Sox 2-1 Yanks)
4th: Damon single to right: Giambi and Matsui scored (Sox 2-3 Yanks)
4th: Jeter single to right: Posada scored (Sox 2-4 Yanks)
5th: Ortiz single to centre: Lugo scored (Sox 3-4 Yanks)
5th: Lowell walked: Youkilis scored (Sox 4-4 Yanks)
5th: Ortiz scored on wild pitch by Pettitte (Sox 5-4 Yanks)
6th: Lugo HOME RUN to left (Sox 6-4 Yanks)
8th: Lugo double to left: Pedroia scored (Sox 7-4 Yanks)
9th: Crisp single to centre: Lowell scored (Sox 8-4 Yanks)
9th: Lugo walked: Varitek scored (Sox 9-4 Yanks)
9th: Youkilis grounded out to second: Crisp scored (Sox 10-4 Yanks)
9th: Ortiz single to left centre: Pedroia scored (Sox 11-4 Yanks)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Dice-K Matsuzaka (Red Sox) [3-2]
Losing Pitcher - Andy Pettitte (Yankees) [1-1]

Current AL East Standings

Red Sox: 15-7
Blue Jays: 11-11
Orioles: 11-12
Devil Rays: 10-13
Yankees: 8-13

Awesome. The next game is tonight, and the man they call Timmy Wakefield is starting the pitdhing for the Sox against Jeff Karstens.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 2 @ Yankees

This saw us lose for the first time against the Yanks.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/28/FR7mp6YT.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

NEW YORK (AP) -- Kei Igawa came out of the bullpen and saved the slumping Yankees when they desperately needed him.

Igawa shut out Boston for six-plus innings after replacing injured starter Jeff Karstens in the first, and New York snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory Saturday.

"See, you can't keep ripping our bullpen," manager Joe Torre said with a touch of sarcasm. "This is a huge win for us. We needed a close game to win. We needed a number of people to do a job, and they did."

Jorge Posada hit a two-run homer off knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (2-3) and Mariano Rivera earned his first save to help the Yankees avoid their first eight-game skid since August 1995.

The slump had owner George Steinbrenner seething in Florida and it raised questions about Torre's job security. But the Yankees (9-13) got what they needed -- a well-pitched game, even though they lost yet another starter to injury.

"Hopefully, today will be the day that we turn it around," Jason Giambi said.

Karstenlalalala by Julio Lugo's line drive on his first pitch, has a broken right leg. He won't need surgery and is expected to return this season, team physician Dr. Stuart Hershon said.

"We're lucky it didn't hit pure bone," Torre said. "It could've been much worse."

Swept at Fenway Park last weekend, New York improved to 1-4 this year against its longtime rival and can win the series Sunday with ace Chien-Ming Wang on the mound. Julian Tavarez pitches for the Red Sox.

Rivera, who entered with an uncharacteristic 12.15 ERA in eight appearances, worked a scoreless ninth for his first save in three chances. One of his blown saves came in the series opener at Fenway.

"Today was different. The ball was moving from the first pitch," Rivera said.

Igawa (2-1) left with two on in the seventh to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 55,026. The Yankees spent $46 million to bring him over from Japan in the offseason, but the left-hander was skipped in the rotation this weekend after flopping in his most recent start Monday night at Tampa Bay. He was sent to the bullpen to work on his mechanics with pitching coach Ron Guidry.

"When he made the effort the other day to throw in the 'pen, there was a different look in his eye," Guidry said. "This game right here is big for him. I was very proud of the way that he pitched today."

Brian Bruney came on and got three quick outs to preserve New York's three-run lead. Kyle Farnsworth gave up a two-out RBI single to Mike Lowell in the eighth before getting Coco Crisp on a called third strike.

Crisp slammed his bat and helmet to the ground and was immediately ejected by plate umpire Bruce Froemming.

"I would have been frustrated, too," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "Did you see the pitch? Tough, tough."

Rivera allowed a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Jason Varitek in the ninth before retiring Alex Cora, Julio Lugo (on a fine play by third baseman Alex Rodriguez) and Kevin Youkilis. That left David Ortiz on deck when the game ended.

"He became tenacious, and you weren't going to take this from him," Torre said about Rivera. "I just think he hasn't been out there enough."

Derek Jeter had three hits for the second consecutive game, but the Yankees left 12 runners on base. Boston stranded 10.

Karstens (cracked fibula) walalalala in the right knee by Lugo's line drive and crumpled to the turf in pain. He tried to stay in and threw five more pitches -- two for strikes. But the rookie was lifted after Youkilis' single and limped off the mound.

It was the latest injury to New York's depleted staff. Already missing starters Mike Mussina (hamstring) and Carl Pavano (forearm), the Yankees picked Karstens over Igawa for Saturday's assignment.

"We've had a lot of stuff happen," general manager Brian Cashman said. "You couldn't print what was going through my head, or what was coming out of my mouth."

Karstens began the season on the disabled list with tendinitis in his right elbow. He was roughed up by the Red Sox for seven runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings last Saturday, his first outing of the year.

Wearing sunglasses on a cloudy afternoon and working exclusively from the stretch, Igawa yielded only two hits and four walks. He struck out six and received hearty pats on the back from several teammates when he departed.

"I have better control of the ball when I pitch from the stretch," Igawa said through a translator.

He also got Ortiz to ground into two double plays, the first one on his second pitch.

"He was all right. Nothing special," Ortiz said. "He was throwing a lot of hittable pitches, but we were just not hitting it."

Hideki Matsui drew a one-out walk in the fourth and Posada homered into the right-field upper deck, New York's first extra-base hit in 24 innings.

Melky Cabrera blooped an RBI double to left in the sixth, chasing Wakefield.

Game notes
Bothered by an aching back, Johnny Damon was the DH for the Yankees. Cabrera started in CF. ... Lowell, a Gold Glove winner in 2005 with Florida, made two errors at 3B. He has eight this season.

It's a shame. But we can't win every game.

Score Summary

4th: Posada HOME RUN to right: Matsui scored (Sox 0-2 Yanks)
6th: Cabrera ground rule double to left: Posada scored (Sox 0-3 Yanks)
8th: Lowell single to right centre: Youkilis scored (Sox 1-3 Yanks)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Kei Igawa (Yankees) [2-1]
Losing Pitcher - Tim Wakefield (Red Sox) [2-3]
Save - Mariano Rivera (Yankees) [1]

Current AL East Standings

Red Sox: 15-8
Orioles: 12-12
Blue Jays: 11-12
Devil Rays: 10-14
Yankees: 9-13

Oh well. Game 3 is tonight, and Julian Tavarez starts. This could possibly be his last start, as super Jon Lester is making his comeback, and he's the man.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 3 @ Yankees

As we had a day off last night, I'll update about our final game of the series against the Yankees. This saw us trying to avenge a 3-1 defeat last time out.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/04/29/GOFFaNjh.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

NEW YORK (AP) -- George Steinbrenner stayed silent about Joe Torre's job status following the Yankees' latest loss, a 7-4 wipeout Sunday against the Boston Red Sox that completed an awful April for New York. Not so, Derek Jeter, who delivered a stirring defense of his manager.

Steinbrenner is said to be angry with the Yankees' 9-14 start, which left them last in the AL East. He considered firing Torre after last year's first-round playoff loss to Detroit and could be thinking about making a change now, with New York heading on the road after losing eight of nine.

Surrounded by reporters, standing in front of his locker in the quiet clubhouse, the Yankees' captain insisted criticism of the manager was unwarranted.

"It's unfair," Jeter said. "There's no way he's responsible for us performing. He's not hitting for us. He's not pitching for us. He puts the best players out there on the field, gives us an opportunity to win. We're just not doing the job. That's unfair, and it should stop. ... He's doing a great job this year. We just haven't done the job on the field. That's the bottom line."

A short while earlier, Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon had stepped on first base for the final out, arm raised high. Boston, which got home runs from David Ortiz, Alex Cora and Manny Ramirez, is 5-1 against New York this season. The Red Sox have a four-game division lead and are 6 1/2 ahead of the Yankees, baseball's $195 million bust.

Following a 10-15 start two years ago, Steinbrenner issued a statement saying: "It's in Joe Torre's and Brian Cashman's hands." On Sunday, he was mute, at least publicly.

"I just spoke to George, and he's not going to have any comment today to anyone," spokesman Howard Rubenstein said after the game.

He wouldn't say whether Steinbrenner will speak Monday.

"I'm not going to go there," Rubenstein said.

Torre, whose steady demeanor rarely changes, sat in his office following the loss and said he wasn't concerned whether losing five of six to Boston would cost him the job he has held since November 1995.

"That's out of my control. I do what I can do. If that's what happens, that's what happens," he said. "It's certainly not the thing I'm thinking about when I'm sitting on the bench."

Torre has not spoken with Steinbrenner since early last week, and neither has general manager Brian Cashman.

Because of injuries, New York hasn't pitched Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina in the same turn through the rotation. Johnny Damon (4-for-32), Bobby Abreu (2-for-30), Hideki Matsui (3-for-17) and Robinson Cano (1-for-1 are slumping.

New York's only runs came on a three-run homer in the third by Doug Mientkiewicz, who ilalalalaing .154 and connected after failing to get a bunt down, and a solo shot in the eighth by Jeter that extended hilalalalaing streak to 17 games. After hitting 14 homers in his first 18 games, Alex Rodriguez hit none in his final five of the month, leaving him tied with Albert Pujols for the April record.

Damon is going to see a doctor Monday about his bad back, and Wang (0-2) pitched Sunday with a broken nail on the middle finger of his throwing hand.

Cashman couldn't say whether Torre's job is in jeopardy but understood that any losing streak by the Yankees provokes speculation.

"That's the nature of the beast. There's no doubt. We've hit a rough spot and when you hit a rough spot, especially here, it's rougher and louder," he said. "I take full responsibility for this start, just because that's my job. This is the team I put together. And so if people are looking for blame, I say blame me."

Boston (16-, trying to end the Yankees' streak of nine straight AL East titles, is assured of having at least a 3 1/2-game lead at the end of April, the largest in franchise history.

"It's a good month, but you can't get caught up in the numbers," said Cora, who hit an RBI grounder in the third, had two-run homer for a 4-3 lead in the fifth and tripled and scored in the seventh.

Ortiz was wary about reading too much into the first month. Two years ago, the Yankees started 11-19 before a 10-game winning streak got them going.

"Ever since I've been here, I've watched them struggle at the beginning. Then they pick it up," he said.

Wang, making his second start since recovering from a hamstring injury, failed to hold a 3-2 lead, repeatedly left pitches up and allowed four runs and six hits in six innings. Ramirez, batting .202, boosted Boston's lead to 7-3 with a two-run homer off Sean Henn in the eighth.

Julian Tavarez (1-2) and four relievers held New York to seven hits, with Papelbon pitching the ninth for his eighth save in eight chances.

"I think today was one of the very, very important starts for me," Tavarez said. "I felt it was like the last start of my life."

Game notes
Yankees RHP Carl Pavano (sore forearm), who hasn't pitched since April 9, threw about 45 pitches in a bullpen session, about 20 from the top of the mound. He probably will throw again Tuesday or Wednesday. ... Boston's Mike Lowell went 0-for-2, ending hilalalalaing streak at 14 games.

Nice to see Manny going long, for his 50th homer against the Yankees.

Score Summary

1st: Ortiz HOME RUN to right (Sox 1-0 Yanks)
3rd: Cora grounded out to shortstop: Crisp scored (Sox 2-0 Yanks)
3rd: Mientkiewicz HOME RUN to right: Posada and Cano scored (Sox 2-3 Yanks)
5th: Cora HOME RUN to right centre: Crisp scored (Sox 4-3 Yanks)
7th: Lugo hit sacrifice fly to right: Cora scored (Sox 5-3 Yanks)
8th: Ramirez HOME RUN to right: Ortiz scored (Sox 7-3 Yanks)
8th: Jeter HOME RUN to left (Sox 7-4 Yanks)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Julian Tavarez (Red Sox) [1-2]
Losing Pitcher - Chien-Ming Wang (Yankees) [0-2]
Save - Jonathan Papelbon (Red Sox) [8]

Current AL East Standings

Red Sox: 16-8
Blue Jays: 13-12
Orioles: 12-14
Devil Rays: 11-14
Yankees: 9-14

Shouldn't laugh really, but it's always nice to see the Yankees struggling. As a Red Sox fan, it makes me feel happy. Tonight we open up our first series this season against Oakland Athletics. The ageless Curt Schilling pitches, and looks to boost his 3-1 record.

[Tealey7]

Series Review - Athletics @ Red Sox

I can't be bothered to do a huge update, so I'll just summarise this series which has just ended.

Game 1

In this game, all looked good for the Sox, until Jonathan Papelbon gave up a 2 run lead after a home run from A's rookie Travis Buck. We were unlucky to lose that one, with Papelbon not expected to have a blast executed so well on his pitching. Brendan Donnelly was shouldered with the loss, and he goes to 0-1. The big thing for the Sox was to win game 2 and square the series.

Game 2

Josh Beckett started last night, and struck out 7 batters. No homers from either side, but the Sox take it, with a final score of 6-4. Josh Beckett goes to a perfect 6-0, and is just 2 wins behind the record set by Babe Ruth and two other Sox pitchers. Mike Timlin got the save, his first of the season.

In other news....

Okajima named AL Rookie of the Month

Originally Posted by Red Sox

Most people saw this coming. Boston's rookie pitcher from Japan has some nasty stuff, sure to earn him the American League Rookie of the Month Award for April. But hold on a second -- it's not Daisuke Matsuzaka.
No, the honor and trophy belong to Red Sox reliever Hideki Okajima, the left-hander out of the 'pen whom most people don't recognize ... yet.

"I am very happy. When I came over to the U.S., the role I was thinking I would play was to be a pitcher who can pitch any time at any given moment," said Okajima, who compiled a 0.71 ERA and struck out 17 batters in 12 2/3 innings in April. "I'm being given those opportunities now, and I'm very happy to pitch in that situation."

Okajima, who signed with the Red Sox during the offseason, appeared in 12 games and allowed only five hits -- one a homer -- and three walks last month. He picked up his first Major League save, against the New York Yankees, on April 20.

But the 31-year-old's career in the U.S. didn't start the way Boston had hoped. Okajima gave up a home run to Royals catcher John Buck on his first pitch of the season. Ever since then, Okajima has proved one thing over and over: He belongs.

"When I gave up the home run to him, I thought, 'Wow, Major League batters are really great,' " Okajima said. "Because of that one pitch, now I've been able to get this far. That pitch was a good chance for me to learn what I need to do to have success in the Major Leagues. It made me rethink what way I can pitch in the U.S. and be successful. The result of that is where I am and how I'm pitching."

Okajima proved that he's not just an early-season star on the evening of April 20, when manager Terry Francona brought him in for his save against the Yankees. He made those guys in pinstripes look pretty uncomfortable at the plate.

Armed with a sneaky fastball, a curveball and a changeup that has surprised some of Boston's coaches, Okajima has made the Red Sox front office look brilliant.

"We knew he was a left-handed pitcher that had command," said pitching coach John Farrell. "But we saw him more as a fastball-curveball guy based on the scouting reports and video that we watched. The biggest surprise is how he's brought along his changeup, really a split change that's given him a pitch that's got later action and good arm speed and deception with it. To me, right now, it's probably the most effective pitch of his three-pitch mix."

Okajima laughed when he heard that Yankees first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said he should be Boston's MVP for April. Okajima knew it was early for statements like that.

"If I heard that at the end of the season, I would be very happy to hear that," Okajima said. "I will stay humble, and I will keep working hard to continue the success."

Akinori Iwamura of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays finished a close second in the voting to Okajima. Also receiving votes in the American League were Matsuzaka, Delmon Young of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Angels pitcher Dustin Moseley, Adam Lind of the Toronto Blue Jays and Joakim Soria of the Kansas City Royals.

Tonight we play a one-off against Seattle to make up for the postponed game earlier on. Dice-K will pitch.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 1 v Mariners[/size]

This game was a make-up for our game which was rained off earlier on in the season. Dice-K started on the mound, but was pulled off very early after an awful start. Indeed, it took some special hitting from Manny to pull us though.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/05/04/NlGzuKRn.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

BOSTON (AP) -- Manny Ramirez finally has his offense going, and he stood still to admire his work.

Coming off the worst April of his 14-year career, the Red Sox slugger broke an eighth-inning tie with his second homer, leading Boston to an 8-7 win over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday night.

When the ball flew off his bat toward the right-center field bleachers, Ramirez stood in the batter's box for four seconds. When it landed there, beyond Boston's bullpen, he was just 10 feet down the first-base line before starting to run.

"The timing was perfect," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "He absolutely leaned on it. He hit that ball like a power left-hand hitter. I can see why he probably admired it."

After Seattle blew a 5-0 lead, admiration was the furthest thing from manager Mike Hargrove's mind for the call on a 2-1 pitch, when the umpires ruled Ramirez checked his swing. The next pitch was a called strike and Ramirez hit a 3-2 changeup from Chris Reitsma (0-1) for the go-ahead homer, helped by a wind blowing from left to right.

"We had Manny struck out, plain and simple," an angry Hargrove said.

Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka struck out just one batter in five innings as he struggled with his control for the second consecutive game. He walked the first three batters and trailed 5-0 after one inning. Boston took a 7-5 lead then allowed Seattle to retie the game before Ramirez's 475th homer.

His .202 batting average in April was his lowest ever for that month. And he was in a 2-for-23 slump before getting two hits in each of his last four games.

"His track record says when he gets hot he doesn't get hot with singles. He drives in a lot of runs," Francona said. "He took some healthy swings tonight."

Brendan Donnelly (1-1) got the win two days after his first loss in 10 decisions since Aug. 12, 2005. J.C. Romero got three outs for his first save as Boston stretched its AL East lead to 5 1/2 games.

Matsuzaka allowed seven runs, five hits and five walks. He has a 5.45 ERA and has walked 15 in 38 innings.

"During the past few games, the manager, the coaching staff and (catcher Jason Varitek) have all told me to be confident in my own stuff," he said through a translator. "I definitely know that I need to change something."

Pitching coach John Farrell said Matsuzaka's body is getting too far in front of his arm during his delivery.

"He fought himself from the first pitch of the game," Farrell said.

Seattle lost for the second time in nine games.

The game was a makeup of an April 12 rainout. The Mariners still have five postponements to make up, four of them because of snow in Cleveland.

For his second straight start, Matsuzaka walked the bases loaded then rebounded. He walked the first three batters and allowed the first eight to reach base. Then he retired the next 10.

In an 11-4 win over the Yankees in New York on Friday night, he walked the bases loaded in a four-run fourth then retired the side in the fifth and sixth.

Matsuzaka began Thursday's game by walking Ichiro Suzuki, Adrian Beltre and Jose Vidro before Raul Ibanez grounded into a forceout at third as Suzuki scored. Richie Sexson walalalala by a pitch, reloading the bases, and Jose Guillen hit a two-run double.

Sexson scored on shortstop Julio Lugo's fielding error, and Guillen scored for a 5-0 lead when Yuniesky Betancourt's popup into short left field bounced off Lugo's glove for a single.

Suzuki stole second in the inning, setting an AL record with his 41st straight successful steal. Tim Raines had 40 from 1993-95.

The first six batters reached base for the Red Sox in the second, when they scored five runs to tie the game off Horacio Ramirez, who allowed the first seven runs.

"When you face a team as good as the Red Sox, you can't fall behind and you can't walk guys," Ramirez said.

The runs scored on Varitek's RBI single, Dustin Pedroia's bases-loaded walk, Lugo's two-run double and David Ortiz's run-scoring single. Boston then took a 7-5 lead on Ramirez's first homer in the fourth.

"The bullpen certainly threw the ball well enough to win the game," Hargrove said.

Matsuzaka retired 12 of 13 before running into trouble again with one out in the fifth. He gave up a walk to Ibanez and a single to Sexson before Seattle tied it on RBI singles by Guillen and Betancourt.

Game notes
Ramirez is 27th on the career home run list. ... Boston RF Wily Mo Pena went 4-fvor-4. ... When Betancourt tagged Ortiz between first and second base to complete a double play in the sixth, Ortiz gave him a big hug. ... The only batter for either team who didn't reach base by the fourth inning was Seattle 2B Jose Lopez. ... The attendance of 37,216 was the largest at Fenway Park since World War II, although the club has added seats annually in recent years.

Nice to see us win, even if it was quite ugly.

Score Summary

1st: Ibanex grounded into fielder's choice at shortstop: Suzuki scored (Mariners 1-0 Sox)
1st: Guillen double to deep right: Vidro and Ibanez scored (Mariners 3-0 Sox)
1st: Johjima safe at first on error by Lugo: Sexson scored (Mariners 4-0 Sox)
1st: Betancourt safe at first on error by Lugo: Guillen scored (Mariners 5-0 Sox)
2nd: Varitek single to centre: Youkilis scored (Mariners 5-1 Sox)
2nd: Pedroia walked: Lowell scored (Mariners 5-2 Sox)
2nd: Lugo ground rule double to deep right centre: Varitek and Pena scored (Mariners 5-4 Sox)
2nd: Ortiz single to left centre: Pedroia scored (Mariners 5-5 Sox)
4th: Ramirez HOME RUN to left: Crisp scored (Mariners 5-7 Sox)
5th: Guillen single to centre: Ibanez scored (Mariners 6-7 Sox)
5th: Betancourt reached on infield single to shortstop: Sexson scored (Mariners 7-7 Sox)
8th: Ramirez HOME RUN to right (Mariners 7-8 Sox)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Brendan Donnelly (Red Sox) [1-1]
Losing Pitcher - Chris Reitsma (Mariners) [0-1]
Save - J.C Romero (Red Sox) [1]

Current AL East Standings

Red Sox: 18-9
Blue Jays: 13-15
Devil Rays: 13-15
Yankees: 12-14
Orioles: 12-16

Interesting. Tonight we open a series away to the Minnesota Twins. Tim Wakefield will attempt to improve his 2-3 record at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis.

[Tealey7]

Game Review - Game 1 v Twins

In this game, an ill Timmy Wakefield pitched. Very little scoring was achieved, apart from a monster homer from David Ortiz.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/images/2007/05/05/prLONOQR.jpg

Originally Posted by ESPN.com

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Tim Wakefield may have found the cure for the common cold -- get plenty of rest, drink lots of fluids and pitch in the Dome.

Struggling with an illness, Wakefield had his knuckleball dancing for seven innings and David Ortiz homered to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 2-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Friday night.

"He was fantastic," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "And he's about 48 hours removed from a couple of IV bags. ... I actually sent him home early one night from the Oakland series to get some rest. He was really struggling."

Wakefield (3-3) held the AL's top-hitting team to three hits and never allowed a runner past second base to outpitch Carlos Silva (2-2) for Boston's third straight win.

Silva allowed just one run over seven innings, but got nothing from an offense that flailed helplessly at 61-mph knucklers all night.

Torii Hunter had two hits to extend hilalalalaing streak to 19 games, but Jason Bartlett managed the only other hit against Wakefield as the Twins lost their third straight.

"It just dances away from you," said Nick Punto, who went 0-for-4. "It might look hittable at the beginning, but by the time it gets to the plate, it's dropping off the table."

Jonathan Papelbon got the last three outs for his ninth save in 10 chances.

Wakefield has always had success indoors at Minnesota, so much so that Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has often talked longingly about adding a knuckler to his staff.

With his knuckleball floating and stinging -- he got MVP Justin Morneau on a check swing in the third and hit Joe Mauer in the first -- Wakefield made things look easy, improving to 7-3 in the Metrodome.

"I love pitching inside, obviously," Wakefield said. "And I like pitching in here. ... I can't explain it. I really don't know, but it's one of those things where the ball moves a little bit more here."

He got just enough support on Friday night and did his part by stymieing a Twins lineup that had at least 12 hits in each of its previous three games and led the AL with a .281 batting average when the day began.

"This Metrodome, I think, is his friend," Gardenhire said. "The ball does some pretty good things in here, moves around. We've seen his ball darting and diving before. Doesn't make it any easier to hit him."

Wakefield was limited to 23 appearances last season -- the fewest since his rookie year in 1992 -- by a stress fracture in his rib cage and finished the year 7-11 with a 4.63 ERA. But the 40-year-old looks just fine so far this season. He entered the game sixth in the AL with a 2.59 ERA and is more than holding his own with Boston's more celebrated starters -- Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Silva is enjoying a resurgence of his own after a disastrous 2006 in which he went 11-15 with a 5.94 ERA and allowed a league-high 38 homers.

Gardenhire called Silva "fantastic," but he walked a tightrope between effectiveness and disaster all night. The Red Sox hit the ball very hard against the Venezuelan right-hander; four of their five hits against him went for extra bases, but the rest were blasted right at Twins defenders.

"What I have to do is give the team the opportunity to win the game," Silva said. "Every time you're able to do that, you're going to be in a great spot."

Ortiz finally broke through in the sixth, driving a sinker an estimated 423 feet into the upper deck in right field. Ortiz's 200th career homer as a DH tied him with Chili Davis for sixth all-time.

"I just tried not to hit the speaker again," Ortiz said, referring to a game last June when his moon shot ricocheted off a speaker hanging in right and fell in for a harmless single.

J.D. Drew tripled to lead off the ninth against Juan Rincon, and scored one out later on Coco Crisp's single to right field.

Game notes
Schilling and Johan Santana held a pregame news conference to announce they were teaming up to promote skin cancer awareness. Surprisingly, it was the first time the two players met in person. "I look at him like I looked at (Randy Johnson) a few years ago," Schilling said of Santana. "There's him, and then there's everybody else." ... Red Sox 1B Kevin Youkilis went 0-for-4, ending his nine-game hitting streak.

Great win.

Score Summary

6th: Ortiz HOME RUN to right (Sox 1-0 Twins)
9th: Crisp single to right: Drew scored (Sox 2-0 Twins)

Pitchers

Winning Pitcher - Tim Wakefield (Red Sox) [3-3]
Losing Pitcher - Carlos Silva (Twins) [2-2]
Save - Jonathan Papelbon (Red Sox) [9]

Current AL East Standings

Red Sox: 19-9
Orioles: 13-16
Blue Jays: 13-16
Devil Rays: 13-16
Yankees: 12-15

Very useful start. Tonight we complete our series against the Twins. Julian Tavarez, who must still be looking over his shoulder at the recovering Jon Lester at Pawtucket starts on the mound, and looks to get his second straight win as pitcher, and to improve his current 1-2 record.