Old Yeller starring Tim Wakefield

Earlier this season, I praised Red Sox greybeard Tim Wakefield so I can't go back now and bash the guy, that would be too easy.

I will say however, that when Wakefield's knuckleball isn't working, look out. You're in for an ugly game.

Such was the case yesterday afternoon as the A's (29-26) salvaged a 9-8 win at Fenway, avoiding sweep at the hands of Boston (31-24).

Wakefield (1-4) didn't have it as six earned runs on eight hits in six innings with four strikeouts will attest to. More than anything though, this was a game the Sox shouldn't have lost since they slugged 18 hits.

Third base coach Tim Bogar was enemy number one since he had two runners thrown out at home and both times they were the first out of the inning. To make it even worse, it was Victor Martinez (who has a toe injury) and Darnell McDonald (who had twisted his ankle at first base in the same inning).

Oakland starter Brett Anderson left after two innings with a sore elbow and the four relievers that followed him all gave up runs but they did enough. Closer Andrew Bailey even pitched two innings for his 12th save of the season.

Bill Hall went 4-for-5 with four runs, two RBIs and a solo homer off Bailey in the ninth. Jeremy Hermida was 3-for-5 with a two-run homer in the sixth. Kevin Youkilis had three hits, Dustin Pedroia and Martinez added two hits and Marco Scutaro had a solo homer in the eighth and three RBIs.

The A's were led by Kurt Suzuki who had two homers and three RBIs off Wakefield. Jack Cust was 3-for-5 with three runs and solo homer off Manny Delcarmen in the eighth. Mark Ellis, Gabe Gross and Eric Patterson each had two hits for Oakland which checked in with 14 hits.

Boston embarked on a seven-game road trip with three in Baltimore and four in Cleveland, the two worst teams in the American League.

Clay Buchholz takes the hill tonight against Orioles rookie Chris Tillman, who's making his second major league start. Baltimore is a mess as usual with reports that they're about to fire manager Dave Tremblay.

Red Sox salvage split in the Bronx

Baseball is the only sport that allows you to play the next day, giving you the quickest time to recover from epic defeats the previous day or night.

The symmetry of last night's Red Sox-Yankees game at Yankee Stadium was unmistakable since Boston (20-20) once again recovered from a 5-0 deficit but looked poised to blow it in the ninth with closer Jonathan Papelbon on the mound.

Somehow though, he got out of a jam (1st and 3rd with 1 out) as the Sox held on 7-6 over the Yankees (25-16).

The game couldn't have started off worse since a nearly 1-hour rain delay and Josh Beckett's early ineffectiveness and supposed back injury put New York up 5-0 in the fifth.

Jose Miranda (RBI single) and Randy Winn (groundout) drove in runs in the second inning, Miranda hit a solo homer in the fourth and Robinson Cano's two-run double in the fifth spelled the end for Beckett, possibly for a long time.

J.D. Drew spurred the comeback with a solo shot in the sixth off C.C. Sabathia (7 innings, 1 earned run, 4 hits, 3 walks, 5 strikeouts) and then the Sox tied it with four in the eighth off bobo Joba Chamberlain. Drew had an RBI double, Youk drove in two with a single and David Ortiz (who's been hot for the last week) nearly missed a home run but settled for a tying single.

Jeremy Hermida, Mr. Clutch this season for Boston, came through once again with two outs against some guy named Mariano Rivera (0-1). He drove in Darnell McDonald and Marco Scutaro with a double to left field over Randy Winn's head in left field. Marcus Thames-the hero the night before-dropped an easy popup from Scutaro when he tried to make a basket catch.

Papelbon allowed an RBI double to Cano but he was able to escape New York with his tenth save of the season. Josh Bard (1-1) got the win after facing just one hitter.

The Sox come back to Fenway for two games against the Minnesota Twins beginning tonight (weather permitting) with Clay Buchholz facing Scott Baker.

Lestee, you're our only hope

Ask any non Pink Hat Red Sox fan and they'll tell you our best starting pitcher the last few seasons has been Jon Lester, not Josh Beckett.

That gap continues to grow with Jon Lackey probably Boston's second best pitcher. Lester (3-2) salvaged a bad series with the Yankees (21-9) by helping the Sox (16-16) win 9-3 last night at Fenway. New York won the first two in blowout fashion.

Once Lester gets out of April, he's a beast and he's followed that routine this season. He went seven innings, giving up two earned runs on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

The only runs the Yankees got off Lester were from solo home runs by Nick Swisher and A-Rod in the fourth inning.

A.J. Burnett (4-1) continued his awful track record at Fenway, getting lit up for nine runs (eight earned) on nine hits with three walks and four strikeouts.

The big inning was the third for the Red Sox as they batted around and plated five runs. J.D. Drew (sacrifice fly), David Ortiz (RBI double), Adrian Beltre (2 run double) and Jeremy Hermida (RBI single) kept the inning alive with productive at bats.

Hermida added a two-run homer in the fifth.

Toronto comes to town tonight for three games. The Blue Jays are playing well, up 2.5 games on the Sox but the last time they played the Sox (a few weekends back at the Rogers Centre), they got swept by Boston. Brandon Morrow goes against Lackey.

And when J.D. Drew gets hurt, cause you know he will, who's your defensive specialist, eh Hermida?

David Ortiz is officially done, but you already knew that. The Boston Red Sox look great against bad teams (except for the Orioles), but you also knew that.

The Sox (13-14) beat the Angels (12-16) last night at Fenway Park, 5-1 thanks to Jon Lester's great start and Jeremy Hermida's clutch three-run double.

Ortiz? Oh he just went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts and he grounded into two double plays. The second was a rare 4-2-3 DP in the bottom of the eighth with the bases loaded, no outs and the score tied 1-1.

Luckily, Adrian Beltre kept the inning alive with a walk which set the stage for Hermida's Wall scraping double that Juan Rivera should have caught.

Lester (2-2) was a horse, throwing eight innings of one run ball, allowing five hits with two walks and five strikeouts. He threw 120 pitches and made manager Terry Francona look smart for keeping in their in the eighth when he ran into some trouble. Dustin Pedroia squelched that by getting a double play to end Lester's night and the inning.

Marco Scutaro continued to be a pleasant surprise at the top of the lineup with Jacoby Ellsbury out. He had three hits and scored the first run. He led off the bottom of the first with a double and eventually scored on Victor Martinez's groundout.

Erick Aybar tied it in the fourth when he scored on Kendry Morales' groundout.

Ervin Santana deserved better for Los Angeles. The up and down righty went seven innings, giving up one run on seven hits with a walk and seven strikeouts.

John Lackey faces his old team for the first time tonight as the Red Sox try to make it three in a row over the uncharacteristically bad Angels. LA counters with former Sox pitcher Joel Pineiro.

Darnell McDonald,. your 2010 Red Sox MVP

For a lifeless team that was burying itself before the season had even really started, Darnell McDonald was a breath of fresh air.

The journeyman outfielder was called up from Pawtucket earlier in the day when Jacoby Ellsbury went on the DL (retroactive to April 12).

Nobody except his family, friends and people that work for the Pawsox had ever heard of him but he came to Fenway last night for his first game with Boston and delivered not only a pinch hit two-run homer in the eighth to tie it but also a walkoff RBI single as the Sox (5-9) finally snapped its five game losing streak with a 7-6 win over the Rangers (5-8).

He is in the lineup tonight in center field but at 31-years old odds are last night will be his biggest MLB highlight. If so, oh well. Baseball is great at providing those memorable moments for scrubs (Morgan Burkhart, Creighton Gubanich, Rico Brogna, etc).

McDonald's heroics overshadowed what began as another very ugly night at Fenway. Texas tied a MLB record with nine stolen bases. The combination of Tim Wakefield on the mound and Victor Martinez, who has the defensive prowess of a little league catcher, led to the perfect storm on the bases.

The Rangers jumped out to a 6-2 lead thanks to timely hitting and the aforementioned stolen bases. Martinez (3 hits) finally came through with an RBI single in the first, breaking a teamwide 0-for-32 stretch with runners in scoring position.

Boston's other run was in the fourth on Jeremy Hermida's solo homer. Wakefield as always was a good soldier and he toiled away for six innings and 114 pitches to save the Sox' bullpen. All six runs were earned on seven hits with five walks and three strikeouts.

Another Pawtucket callup, Josh Reddick, fueled the comeback with a two-run double in the sixth which cut it to 6-4 Rangers.

Manny Delcarmen got five outs and Hideki Okajima wiggled out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth to preserve the two-run deficit.

After McDonald tied it in the eighth with his two-run shot, Jonathan Papelbon (1-1) worked a scoreless ninth before McDonald stepped up again.

Rangers star Nelson Cruz (3 steals, 2 hits, run, hit, walk) left in the bottom of the ninth with a hamstring injury.

Josh Beckett is on the bump tonight against Matt Harrison. Beckett has pitched well in his last two starts and the Sox need more of that to calm their MLB worst rotation down for a night.

2008 was a great year for some

The Tampa Bay Rays completed their first four-game sweep in team history at Fenway Park yesterday afternoon on Patriots Day.

The 8-2 shellacking sent Tampa Bay (10-3) to their seventh straight win while Boston (4-9) has lost five in a row in this very ugly start to the 2010 season.

After making the World Series in 2008 out of nowhere, the Rays came back down to earth last season and didn't make the playoffs as they failed to live up to expectations. The team is still young and supremely talented and there's no reason they can't go deep into the playoffs this fall barring any huge injuries or major slumps.

Jeff Niemann (1-0) got his first win of the season, going seven innings and allowing two earned runs on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts.

In his third start for the Red Sox, John Lackey (1-1) got completely shelled and looked like the loser that routinely choked at Fenway when he was with the Angels. He only last 3.1 innings, getting touched for eight earned runs on nine hits with a walk and three strikeouts.

Tampa Bay went up 1-0 in the first on Ben Zobrist's groundout which scored Jason Bartlett (3 hits, 3 runs) who had doubled.

The Rays added five in the third on Evan Longoria's two-run double and B.J. Upton's three-run homer into the Boston bullpen.

After Bartlett's RBI triple in the fourth and Carl Crawford's sacrifce fly, Lackey's early day was already done.

Jeremy Hermida helped Boston avoid the shutout with a two-run homer to right in the seventh.

The Sox look to get something positive going tonight as they play a team more at their level right now-the Texas Rangers-who come to Fenway for three games.

John Lackey: More than just the husband of a trophy wife

With Jon Lester's usual slow start underway and Josh Beckett getting hammered by the Yankees on Opening Night, John Lackey has quietly come into Boston with two fine starts in a row.

He grabbed his first win in a Sox uniform yesterday with a 6-3 win over the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.

Lackey (1-0) went 6.2 innings, giving up two earned runs on seven hits with four walks and two strikeouts. It wasn't a gem by any means but for a team and rotation that needs consistency all over the place, Lackey seems like a breath of fresh air.

Boston (4-4) got all the offense they needed from Dustin Pedroia (2 hits, 2 RBIs) and Jeremy Hermida (3 RBIs).

Pedroia's RBI double in the first scored Marco Scutaro (2 hits) then Scutaro put the Sox up 2-0 in the second with an RBI single which scored J.D. Drew.

Minnesota (6-3) tied it up with two runs in the third even though they didn't hit the ball hard. Orlando Hudson drove in Delmon Young with an RBI single and Joe Mauer's infield single tied it up as Denard Span crossed the plate.

Dustin Pedroia hit his fourth homer of the season, a solo shot in the fifth off Twins starter Kevin Slowey (1-1). That 3-2 lead was one Boston wouldn't give up. Jeremy Hermida added the biggest hit of the game, a three-run double in the eighth.

Michael Cuddyer hit a solo home run off Daniel Bard in the eighth and Jonathan Papelbon channeled last season in the ninth as he walked two batters but survived to get his third save of the season.