So Far This Season: The Tigers are Good & The Red Sox Are Not, It's As Simple As That

To start their biggest series so far in 2014, the Red Sox might as well have stayed home (at least they would have stayed dry) as they were blanked 1-0 by the Tigers tonight at rainy Fenway Park. In a rematch of the 2013 ALCS, soon-to-be free agent ace Max Scherzer (6-1; 6 innings, 3 hits, 7 strikeouts, 4 walks) was a little better than soon-to-be free agent ace Jon Lester (4-5; 5 innings, 1 earned run, 4 hits, 7 strikeouts, 3 walks) as Boston (20-21 overall, 10-12 home) fell back below .500 while Detroit (25-12 overall, 12-4 away) keeps setting the pace in the AL in terms of best winning percentage.

There was a 47-minute rain delay in the top of the fourth with the Tigers up 1-0 but as you can tell, it didn't disrupt either pitcher that much since they both returned to the mound when they game restarted. Scherzer threw 106 pitches and Lester was yanked after 94. The only run in the game was in the first as ageless Torii Hunter (2 for 4) singled in Ian Kinsler.

Boston had no extra base hits and they were limited to just five hits overall. They were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base. You know that things are really going well for Detroit since former Yankees overhyped bum Joba Chamberlain pitched a 1-2-3 eighth for the hold. This might be a slight exaggeration but I don't think Joba ever had a 1-2-3 inning while he was with New York vs. Boston, at least not in his last few forgettable years.

Detroit closer Joe Nathan pitched a 1-2-3 ninth with one strikeout for his 11th save of the season. Boston will try to bounce back and get to .500 again tomorrow night (7:10, NESN) as John Lackey (5-2) faces Rick Porcello (6-1) who finally seems to have figured things out.


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Red Sox Punch Ticket to Their 3rd World Series in 10 Years

The Red Sox are going to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2013 World Series, a rematch of 2004, after Boston knocked out Detroit in six truly thrilling games. Tonight at Fenway Park, the Red Sox beat the Tigers 5-2 thanks to a clutch grand slam by Shane Victorino in the seventh inning that put them ahead 5-2. Craig Breslow got a 1-2-3 eighth and ALCS MVP Koji Uehara pitched a scoreless ninth with two strikeouts for his third save of the series (plus 1 win). Game 1 of the World Series is Wednesday (8:07, Fox) at Fenway.

The themes built up over the previous five games continued one more time: Max Scherzer (0-1) was excellent (6.1 innings, 3 earned runs, 4 hits, 8 strikeouts, 5 walks) but his bullpen was not. Boston's bullpen was superb, well other than Franklin Morales who allowed a two-run single to Victor Martinez that temporarily put Detroit ahead 2-1 in the sixth. I don't blame Morales as much as John Farrell for that mind-numbing move since Morales is terrible. Oh well, no reason to worry about that blunder too much now. Haha let's just hope Morales isn't on the World Series roster.

Clay Buchholz (5 innings, 2 earned runs, 4 hits, 4 strikeouts, 2 walks) pitched at a snail's pace but he was better than Game 1. After Morales failed, Brandon Workman (who should have been the first reliever) got five outs and Junichi Tazawa (1-0) retired Miguel Cabrera for the third time in the ALCS, in this instance there were runners on first and second with two outs.

Compared to Prince Fielder though, Cabrera had the greatest ALCS in history. Prince proved what a dog he is by hitting .182 in six games with no RBIs. He's gone 20 postseason games without a homer or RBI, how's that even possible? His series was best summed up by him getting caught too far off third then belly flopping five feet short of the bag for a soul-crushing double play.

Jacoby Ellsbury drove in budding superstar Xander Bogaerts (double, two runs, two walks) for a 1-0 Red Sox lead in the fifth. The rookie also drew a key walk vs. Scherzer in the sixth that led to him getting pulled a few batters later and Victorino's memorable grand slam over the Monster. Bogaerts will start every game in the World Series and deservedly so. I'd love to see Will Middlebrooks at third base and Bogaerts at third but Stephen Drew's excellent dive and throw to first likely earned him more leeway despite him being 1-for-20 (even Prince thinks that's bad) with nine strikeouts in the ALCS.

You can't say enough about the importance of not going seven games with Detroit. The Cardinals eliminated the Dodgers last night so they don't have much of a headstart on Boston plus thanks to the stupid All-Star Game, the Red Sox have homefield advantage. Both teams are gunning for their third World Series crown in the last decade and Boston swept St. Louis in 2004 (you might have heard about that). Anything can happen in the World Series but I expect it to be extremely competitive, think ALCS, but the Cardinals are deeper and more fundamentally sound than the Tigers who self-destructed much like the Rays in the ALDS.

This is the 11th time in franchise history that the Red Sox have made the World Series (6-4) and fourth time it is against St. Louis: Cardinals beat them in seven games in 1946 and 1967 before Boston returned the favor nine years ago. Four more wins!

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Red Sox Pull Off a Comeback for the Ages: Rallying to Beat Tigers 6-5 in ALCS Game 2

Let me just get this out of the way first since honestly, I hate humblebrags: I was lucky enough to attend my first Red Sox playoff game tonight, as a fan not a sportswriter. Wouldn't you know that ALCS Game 2 vs. Detroit turned out to be an unforgettable experience as Boston rallied from down 5-0 to tie it in the eighth on David Ortiz's grand slam then win it in the ninth on Jarrod Saltalamacchia's walk-off single.

The Red Sox evened the series at one, sending it to Detroit for three games in three days beginning on Tuesday (4:07, Fox) afternoon. Being there first-hand, I can admit a few things: 1) plenty of people left when it was 5-1 heading to the bottom of the eighth (who leaves a playoff game during a long weekend?), 2) nobody could have expected this since the Red Sox had one hit in the first 15.2 innings and 3) Ortiz could be the most clutch player in MLB history.

It was hard to fathom after Detroit came two outs away from a no-hitter the night before in Game 1 but Max Scherzer (7 innings, 1 earned run, 2 hits, 13 strikeouts, 2 walks) was even more locked in than Anibal Sanchez since the latter walked six batters. Clay Buchholz (5.2 innings, 5 earned runs, 8 hits, 6 strikeouts, 0 walks) on the other hand, came completely unraveled in the sixth.

Detroit had gone up 1-0 on Alex Avila's (2 hits, run, walk) RBI single in the second inning. They pushed four across in the sixth on Miguel Cabrera's solo homer, Victor Martinez's (2 doubles, 2 runs) RBI double and a two-run bomb by Avila. Brandon Workman (scoreless IP) and Felix Doubront (scoreless 1.1 IP) settled things down as the bats finally woke up.

Shane Victorino recorded Boston's first hit then came around to score on a wall ball double by Dustin Pedroia. Still the Tigers were comfortably ahead 5-1 in the eighth but somehow things lined up for Ortiz with the bases loaded and two outs. Detroit manager Jim Leyland played to win, bringing in closer Joaquin Benoit for a four-out save but Ortiz hit a missile on his first pitch in the Red Sox bullpen. It was topped off by Torii Hunter flipping over the wall in vain trying to grab it.

I don't have fresh numbers from Carmine to prove it but I feel like teams that rally from big deficits in baseball usually win, meaning that Salty's hit was a formality. Albeit a very exciting one for the home crowd. Koji Uehara (1-0) had pitched a 1-2-3 ninth on nine pitches (8 strikes) including a strikeout.

Jonny Gomes led off the bottom of the ninth against Rick Porcello (0-1) and hit an infield single that Jose Iglesias threw wide of first. One-dimensional slugger Prince Fielder butchered it, why I think he should have been charged with an error and not Iglesias. After a wild pitch, Gomes moved to third then he scored on Salty's opposite field single to left. The Red Sox chased him to second base in celebration, it was truly one of the best sporting events I've ever been to in my life.

If anything, these two games have shown us how razor thin the margin is between these two great teams. I expect the series to come back to Boston for Game 6 and possibly Game 7 since it's hard to see either team rattling off three wins in a row. John Lackey gets the tall task (no pun intended) of trying to beat Justin Verlander on Tuesday. On paper, it's a bad matchup for Boston but after tonight, it's hard to count them out in any situation.

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It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like October At Fenway Park

In hindsight, it's easy to admit that for a brief period in the last decade we started to take playoff baseball for granted. The Red Sox were in the mix every season so actually getting there wasn't all that exciting (same deal with the Patriots, still). Well it's been four years since Boston has competed in the postseason and five years since they actually won a game. This is a long way of saying that tonight's instant classic 2-1 win by the Red Sox (83-57 overall, 46-25 home) over the Tigers (81-58 overall, 37-31 away) at Fenway Park felt like it took place in October rather than early September.

No doubt plenty will happen between now and then but it's not hard to imagine a repeat of this matchup in next month's ALCS. These look like the two best teams in the AL (and maybe MLB) so what a treat that would be for baseball fans. Jon Lester (13-8) pitched his best game of the season (7 innings, 1 earned run, 8 hits, 9 strikeouts, 0 walks) as he was able to outduel Max Scherzer (19-2; 7+ innings, 2 earned runs, 5 hits, 8 strikeouts, 3 walks) and also deny him his 20th win.

In such a long campaign, it's extremely rare that all the stars align and we get to witness an excellent regular season contest like this one turned out to be. Former Red Sox Jose Iglesias staked Detroit to a 1-0 lead with an RBI double in the second but the Tigers third base coach made the stupid decision to send their fat catcher Brayan Pena who was thrown out at home by a mile to end the inning.

Will Middlebrooks provided all the offense that Boston would need with a two-run single up the middle in the fifth that scored Jonny Gomes (2 hits) and Stephen Drew. Austin Jackson was 2 for 4 with a double and Omar Infante went 2 for 4 with a run. After missing the last three games with an abdominal issue, Miguel Cabrera returned to the lineup but went 0 for 4. No at bat was bigger for Lester than in the fifth when Cabrera came up with the bases loaded and two outs. Lester fell behind 2-and-0 to the best hitter on the planet but ended up getting him to ground out to shortstop.

Red Sox manager John Farrell broke this down like a playoff game, having Brandon Workman, Craig Breslow and Junichi Tazawa all get one out apiece in the eighth. That paved the way for who has quickly become one of the most effective closers in MLB: Koji Uehara. He nailed down his 17th save on nine pitches and remarkably he still struck out two batters including Iglesias to end it (delicious irony!).

You wish that this series could go on forever (relatively speaking) but sadly it at least temporarily has to end tomorrow night (7:10, NESN) with the D-squad showdown of Ryan Dempster (7-9) vs. Rick Porcello (11-7); get your bullpens ready because it should be a long evening.

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Red Sox Come Home, Win 3rd Straight Thanks To Another Fine Start By Buchholz

We are less than 16 hours away from the 2012 MLB Trade Deadline and at least for the moment, it doesn't appear that the Red Sox will do anything big. Still, there is time left for them to pull something off but in the interim, Boston (52-51, 26-28 home) won its third straight overall with a 7-3 win vs. Detroit (54-49, 26-28 away) tonight at Fenway Park.

It was the start of the Red Sox' longest homestand of the season (10 games) and Clay Buchholz (9-3) once again pitched like the ace that he's been since the All-Star break. He gave them eight solid innings (3 runs, 2 earned, 5 hits, 4 strikeouts, 2 walks) to earn the win.

Boston's offense knocked around Max Scherzer (10-6) and reliever Phil Coke. In 6.1 innings, Scherzer allowed five earned runs on seven hits with nine strikeouts and two walks. How many times do you have to hear that strikeouts really aren't that important? I'll say it again: they are one of the most overrated things in baseball. A 5-3 lead in the eighth became 7-3 when Will Middlebrooks (13th of the season) roped a two-run shot off the light tower against Coke to put it out of reach.

Austin Jackson led off the game with a solo homer (his 11th of the season) for the 1-0 Tigers lead, what turned out to be their only one of the game.

Carl Crawford (2 runs) and his one functioning arm/elbow drove in Jacoby Ellsbury with an RBI triple in the first then he scored on Dustin Pedroia's ground out.

Miguel Cabrera tied it in the second for Detroit with an RBI single. Pedroia put Boston ahead one last time with a two-run shot (his 9th of the season) that just made it over the Monster in the sixth.

Alex Avila provided the Tigers' last run with an RBI double in the seventh. Kelly Shoppach tripled (really) and Ellsbury knocked him in with a single in the seventh for a 5-3 Red Sox advantage.

Adrian Gonzalez (run) and Jarrod Saltalamacchia both had two hits in the win for Boston but as usual, what occurred off the field was far more interesting for this group of clowns.

After making an out in the eighth, Ryan Sweeney punched a door and injured his hand so he's likely headed to the DL. Guess he didn't want to be dealt from here. With Twitter, now everyone is aware of all the trade rumors involving Josh Beckett (5-9). If he's on the mound tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., NESN) against Justin Verlander (11-6), well then it's official: the terrorists have won and there is no reason to pay attention for the rest of 2012. He would be a classic case of addition by subtraction.

UPDATE 7/31: We probably won't see Sweeney again this season. He's expected out up to eight weeks after breaking his hand last night. Ryan Kalish has been recalled to take his spot.

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Detroit Tigers Avoid Four-Game Sweep By The Red Sox Thanks To Josh Beckett's Dud

Josh Beckett and the Red Sox weren't able to complete a four-game sweep of the Tigers tonight at Fenway Park. Detroit (24-27, 13-15 away) beat Boston (26-25, 13-14 home) 7-3 in a pretty lifeless game witnessed first-hand by my girlfriend and I.

It marked the second time (White Sox, April 29) this season that Beckett lost when the Red Sox had a chance at a four-game sweep. Boston might be safely over .500 at last but the fact that their home record (where they usually excel) is still under .500 is a troubling sign of things to come.

Beckett (4-5) went seven innings but he wasn't fooling many hitters as they touched him up for four earned runs on 10 hits with one strikeout and one walk. While I'd like to pile all the blame on the Texas Toughguy, mostly because it's so fun, the truth was that relievers Franklin Morales (1 run) and Rich Hill (2 runs) were also off their games.

Max Scherzer (5-3) won his third straight start, an adequate outing that lasted six innings. He allowed three earned runs on seven hits with six strikeouts and two walks.

It should come as no surprise that a makeshift Red Sox lineup (hello Scott Podsednik leading off) without Dustin Pedroia (injured thumb) and Will Middlebrooks (not in the lineup, don't ask me why) struggled to produce much offense. In fact, the Tigers doubled up (14-7) the Red Sox in total hits.

Quintin Berry (3 hits, 2 runs, 2 stolen bases, RBI), Delmon Young (3 hits, 2 RBIs, run), Prince Fielder (2 hits, 2 RBIs, run) and Miguel Cabrera (2 hits, run, RBI) all had multiple hits for Detroit. Only Jarrod Saltalamacchia (2 hits, 2 RBIs), who should get serious All-Star consideration if he keeps this up (.373, 6 HRs, 14 RBIs in his last 16 games), had more than one hit for Boston.

Detroit nearly scored in the second inning but Young was thrown out at home on a nice throw by Ryan Sweeney in right field. Not sure why they sent him since Young isn't fast and he was the last out of the frame. Dumb move.

The Red Sox grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second thanks to Salty's (10th of the season) solo homer to right center and Podsednik's RBI double.

Beckett coughed it right up as the Tigers scored three times in the third to take a 3-2 lead. Berry had an RBI single, Brennan Boesch had a sacrifice fly and Fielder plated Berry with an RBI single.

Saltalamacchia tied it at three with an RBI single in the third but Cabrera's RBI single in the fifth put Detroit ahead for good. Young (4th of the season) crushed a meatball from Morales over the Monster in the eighth.

Against Hill in the ninth, Fielder had an RBI triple (no joke) and Young ended his memorable night with an RBI single.

I'm calling it right now, June will be the toughest month of the season for the Red Sox: seven of the nine series are against teams with winning records. Boston begins that arduous task with three games in Toronto this weekend. The Blue Jays (27-24, 1 game ahead of Red Sox, 4th in AL East) took two of three from the Red Sox back on April 9-11 at Rogers Centre.

Clay Buchholz (4-2) faces Henderson Alvarez (3-4) tomorrow night (7:07 p.m., NESN) in the opener. Felix Doubront (5-2) opposes Kyle Drabek (4-5) on Saturday afternoon (1:07 p.m., NESN) and in the finale on Sunday afternoon (1:07 p.m., NESN), Daniel Bard (5-5) is against rookie Drew Hutchison (4-2).

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Nothing Has Changed The Fact That The Red Sox Are Still A Disaster

It only took three games but the Boston Red Sox' offense finally awoke in 2012. They mashed out 18 hits, 12 runs, 11 RBIs & four walks today; they also went 8 for 21 with runners in scoring position.

What's that? This isn't your shitty softball league, you need to pitch well too in order to win? Boston (0-3) apparently missed that tutorial in Spring Training as they lost 13-12 to the Tigers (3-0) this afternoon at Comerica Park in 11 innings, giving Detroit the Opening series sweep.

The Red Sox bullpen is a complete mess as Alfredo Aceves blew a three-run lead in the ninth when Miguel Cabrera hit a three-run homer (his 3rd of the season) and Mark Melancon (0-2) blew a two-run lead in the 11th. Alex Avila (2nd homer of the season) ended it for the Tigers with a two-out, two-strike, two-run bomb off Melancon.

In a game when Boston needed innings and a quality start, Clay Buchholz (4 innings, 8 hits, 7 runs, 7 earned) could give them neither. Well at least he was better than Detroit's starter Max Scherzer (2.2 innings, 8 hits, 7 runs, 7 earned).

Bobby Valentine made the curious decision to have Nick Punto lead off but it turned out to be a great move as he had three hits and three RBIs in his first start for the Red Sox. Another player that needed a boost, Mike Aviles, delivered with three hits, three RBIs and two runs of his own. David Ortiz added three hits, two runs and an RBI while Jacoby Ellsbury (run, walk) and Dustin Pedroia (walk, stolen base) notched two hits as well. Boston's backup catcher Kelly Shoppach was the only player in either starting lineup to not record a hit.

Detroit showed all series why they should have one of the top lineups in the American League this season. In the finale, they slugged 17 hits, 13 runs and 12 RBIs for the win. Austin Jackson led the Tigers, going 4 for 6 with three RBIs. Miguel Cabrera drove in five RBIs with three runs and three hits. Prince Fielder (2 runs) and Brennan Boesch both had two hits.

Befitting a contest that went four hours and 45 minutes, this one had some wild momentum swings. Detroit went up 4-0 in the first on Cabrera's RBI single and Jhonny Peralta's three-run double that Ellsbury dropped (very tough play). Aviles' two-run double in the second cut it to 4-2 Tigers but Cabrera added a sacrifice fly in the home of the inning.

Boston scored more runs (5) in the third than they had combined for in the previous 20 innings. Ortiz got it started with an RBI double, Aviles had an RBI single, Punto hit a sacrifice fly, Aviles scored on Scherzer's balk and Ellsbury had an RBI single which put the Red Sox up 7-5.

In the fourth, Buchholz gave it right back as Boesch hit an RBI single and a run scored on Cabrera's double-play ball.

Gonzalez crushed Boston's first home run of the season, a two-run shot in the sixth to give the Red Sox a 9-7 advantage. Punto's infield single in the ninth gave Boston an insurance run as Darnell McDonald scored.

Punto and Pedroia had RBI singles in the 11th but Detroit answered one more time with a sacrifice fly by Delmon Young and Avila's homer.

Vicente Padilla (4 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts) was great in the 5th-8th innings while Franklin Morales (2 innings, 1 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 3 strikeouts) in the 9th-10th was also very good. Unfortunately, nobody will remember their valuable contributions in this instance. Such is the life of a middle reliever.

Tigers reliever Duane Below (2-0) got his second win of the season by recording the last out of the 11th which at the time didn't seem like a big play whatsoever.

So where do the Red Sox go from here? They traveled to Toronto after the game and they play three against the Blue Jays (2-1) starting with tomorrow night as Felix Doubront faces Henderson Alvarez (one of Toronto's top pitching prospects). Daniel Bard gets his first start on Tuesday against youngster Kyle Drabek and then Jon Lester opposes Ricky Romero on Wednesday afternoon in what should easily be the best pitched game of the series.

At this juncture, it's hard to argue that Bard shouldn't be the Red Sox closer. He would have way more value there than as a fifth starter but maybe he just doesn't have the fortitude and mental toughness to get the job done. All I know is that Boston needs to get a win, in any manner possible before the roof really starts to cave in on Valentine and Co.

It was a weird weekend in the AL East as Baltimore is off to a 3-0 start after sweeping Minnesota while Tampa Bay is also 3-0 after sweeping the Yankees. It's the first time since 1966 that the Red Sox and Yankees have both started 0-3. So yeah, it's still always about us even when we suck.

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Alfredo Aceves is better than John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka, true story my friends

Baseball is a funny game. When you're a big market team like the Boston Red Sox you can afford terrible hiccups in free agency like John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka and then you luck out with a scrap heap pickup like Alfredo Aceves.

I'm not exactly sure about his medical history, I assume the New York Yankees let him go because he had an arm issue or something but whatever the reason, I'm psyched that he's crossed over to their bitter rivals.

Yesterday afternoon, he submitted his second good start in a row after being added to the rotation (for the injured Lackey and Dice-K). The Red Sox (28-22) won their 11th game out of their last 13 and it was another laugher, 14-1 in the series opener at Detroit's (25-24) Comerica Park.

Aceves (2-0) went six innings, allowing five hits, one earned run with two walks and six strikeouts in a game that was called off after 7.5 innings because of rain.

Max Scherzer (6-2) entered as one of the AL's top pitchers so far this season but he left with a bruised ego as the Red Sox put up 14+ runs in the second straight game for the first time since 1998. Scherzer lasted only two innings, allowing seven hits, seven earned runs with two walks and a strikeout.

Jacoby Ellsbury (2 runs, 2 walks) had the most memorable hit, a three-run homer (his fifth bomb of the season). Moved up to the No. 6 spot, Carl Crawford continued to erase his terrible start. He went 4 for 5 with two triples, three RBIs and two runs.

Recent callups Josh Reddick (3 hits, 3 RBIs, 2 runs) and Drew Sutton (2 hits, 2 RBIs, 2 runs) also had big days that no doubt they'll be telling their grandkids or bums at the homeless shelter about in a few years.

Tim Wakefield (Boston's other substitute in the rotation) starts tonight against Tigers youngster Rick Porcello.