John Farrell Must Be Psyched To Be Out Of That Dump Aka Toronto

It is adorable how Toronto is pretending to care about the Blue Jays for a few days while their old manager-John Farrell-is in town with his new team. FYI the Blue Jays haven't made the playoffs in 20 years, since they won the World Series in 1993. Tonight in the series opener at a nearly sold out (which never happens) Rogers Centre, Boston (3-1 overall, 3-1 away) beat Toronto (1-3 overall, 1-3 home) 6-4.

The Red Sox jumped out to a 4-1 lead by the fifth inning but the Blue Jays tied it in the seventh before Boston scored single runs in the eighth and ninth.

Neither Felix Doubront (5 IP, 3 runs, 9 hits, 6 strikeouts, 0 walks) nor Josh Johnson (6 IP, 4 runs, 3 earned runs, 9 hits, 6 strikeouts, 2 walks) were on top of their games but who could blame them since Boston pounded out 12 hits (including 5 extra base hits) and worked six walks while Toronto had 12 hits (8 for extra bases).

The story for the Red Sox was their first two homers of the season along with some more stellar relief. Jacoby Ellsbury plated the first run of the game, in the second inning, with an RBI single. Mark DeRosa tied it with a sacrifice fly in the home half of the inning but Pedro Ciriaco (2 hits, stolen base) had an RBI single in the fourth after Jose Iglesias left the game (he was hit by a pitch on the elbow).

In the fifth inning, Mike Napoli's first homer (a two-run bomb) for Boston was a memorable one for a couple reasons: 1) it went to the opposite field and 2) it was the first Red Sox home run of 2013. Those runs proved to be vital since DeRosa cut it to 4-2 with a solo shot in the bottom of the fifth and Jose Reyes (4 for 5, 2 doubles, 2 runs) made it 4-3 with an RBI double. Reyes tied it with a solo homer in the seventh off Junichi Tazawa (1-0), who still ended up with the win.

Koji Uehara had a 1-2-3 sixth with two strikeouts for the Red Sox, Andrew Bailey had a scoreless eighth and Joel Hanrahan submitted a scoreless ninth for his second save of the season. Boston scored its last two runs with a ground out by Napoli in the eighth and a solo homer by Will Middlebrooks (double) in the ninth.

Dustin Pedroia was 2 for 3 with a double, run and walk while Shane Victorino was 2 for 5 with two runs. Rajai Davis was the only other Blue Jay with multiple hits, he was 2 for 4 with a double and run. The two teams combined to go 2 for 29 (seriously) with runners in scoring position but at least Boston made a few count (2 for 19) whereas Toronto was 0 for 10. Ouch.

Much like I boycotted Josh Beckett's starts last season, I plan to take the same action beginning tomorrow afternoon (1:07, NESN) as John Lackey makes his 2013 debut against J.A. Happ.

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Red Sox Continue To Fade Into Irrelevancy & Summer's Only Just Begun!

When did it come to this? The Boston Red Sox have transformed into that awful class you had to take in high school or college. All you can think about is when it will all be over and you can move on with your life. That pretty much sums up where fans of this team feel these days.

Beginning their interleague series at Marlins Park tonight, the Red Sox (29-32, 15-13 away) fell 4-1 to the Miami Marlins (32-29, 17-16 home). It was Boston's fourth loss in a row and seventh in its last eight games overall. Miami snapped a six-game losing streak and it's all thanks to the fact that they opened the roof-something they rarely do in rainy/steamy South Florida.

You have to give the Red Sox credit for one thing: they seemingly invent new ways to piss people off on a weekly basis. The latest chapter is their constant complaining about balls and strikes. It's an epidemic that starts at the top with manager Bobby Valentine crying about umpires every chance he gets. Still lacking leadership or flat out intelligence, the players see that and buy in for some reason like a bad Little League team.

For instance, Kevin Youkilis struck out (swinging) to end tonight's game yet he was barking at the umpires as he went into the dugout and up the tunnel. Suddenly a hateable team that's borderline unwatchable becomes even worse. Amazing.

Oh yes, the game. Well Josh Johnson (4-4) shutdown the Red Sox' depleted lineup for seven innings and handed it over to an equally stingy bullpen (for this game at least). Johnson allowed one run on four hits with seven strikeouts and a walk.

For the sixth straight time, Josh Beckett (4-7) went seven innings but Boston is only 3-3 in that time span. Don't think I'll let the Texas Toughguy off the hook that easily though since he handed the Marlins a 4-0 lead by the second inning, thereby ruling out any chance the Red Sox had of winning before it had even really started. Beckett allowed four earned runs on six hits with five strikeouts and a walk. He was great after the second inning but will anyone remember that?

Before Miami's typically late arriving crowd had settled in, the Marlins posted three runs in the first. Donovan Solano had a sacrifice fly, Logan Morrison stepped away from Twitter for a second to hit an RBI double and Gaby Sanchez added an RBI single.

Solano had a sacrifice fly in the second inning to give Miami a commanding 4-0 lead which felt like 10-0 with the way Boston is hitting at the moment.

Adrian Gonzalez provided the Red Sox' only run as he drove in Scott Podsednik (3 hits, stolen base) with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Falmouth High alum Steve Cishek worked the eighth for his seventh hold of the season and Heath Bell struck out the side in the ninth (second game in a row that's happened to Boston) for his 13th save of the season.

Mark Melancon had a 1-2-3 eighth for Boston which is huge news for him since the last time he appeared in a Red Sox uniform, he got lit up on April 17 vs. Texas (6 earned runs, 4 hits). He's been lights out in Pawtucket so let's hope he can continue to be that guy and not the April version of himself.

As an added bonus, this game was only two hours and 35 minutes long which gave the Miami "fans" plenty of time to hit the clubs and overpriced restaurants earlier than usual.

Clay Buchholz (6-2) will look to snap the Red Sox out of their latest funk tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., NESN) when he faces former White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle (5-6).

UPDATED 6/12: Outfielder Marlon Byrd was released today by the Red Sox.

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