Any Loss To The Blue Jays This Season Is A Bad One, Red Sox Have Dropped 7 of Their Last 9

There are few baseball games that on paper look like automatic wins: when you play a bad team, at home, with your ace on the mound, that's one of those rare occasions when a loss is simply unacceptable. The Red Sox found themselves in that scenario this afternoon and they lost 3-2 to the Blue Jays at rainy Fenway Park.

Clay Buchholz pitched very well (8 innings, 2 earned runs, 6 hits, 4 strikeouts, 3 walks) but Mark Buehrle (7 innings, 1 earned run, 5 hits, 5 strikeouts, 2 walks) was a notch better.

Toronto (14-24 overall, 7-12 away) went up 2-0 on RBI singles by Melky Cabrera and Colby Rasmus (run, walk) in the third and fourth innings respectively.

Boston's (22-15 overall, 13-9 home) continually shot themselves in the foot since they were 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. They clawed back in it with an RBI triple by Jacoby Ellsbury off Darren Oliver (2-1) in the eighth and Dustin Pedroia's (2 hits, stolen base) grounder ate up shortstop Munenori Kawasaki, allowing Ellsbury to score.

It wasn't a save situation but Junichi Tazawa's first appearance since getting elevated to closer didn't go smoothly as Adam Lind (3 hits, 2 runs) cranked a solo homer off him to center in the ninth for the winning run. Toronto closer Casey Janssen pitched a scoreless ninth for his 10th save of the season.

The three game series wraps up tomorrow afternoon (1:35 p.m., NESN) with another pitching matchup that favors the home team: Ryan Dempster (2-3) faces rookie Chad Jenkins, who is making his first start of 2013 (it'll be his fourth career start). After splitting the first two games, both squads are going for the series win on Mother's Day.

UPDATE 5/12: David Ross went on the 7-day DL with a concussion suffered yesterday so Ryan Lavarnway was recalled from the PawSox.

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Royals Beat Red Sox in 14 Innings While Most of New England Sleeps

I can't lie and say I was riveted by every pitch of last night's 14 inning contest between the Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park.

For one thing, the game had a rain delay that lasted 2:21 meaning that the first pitch didn't happen until 9:30 p.m. Also, unlike the instant classic 16 inning game against the Rays on Sunday Night Baseball a few weeks ago, this one had little appeal outside of seeing how Jon Lester would do in his first start back from the DL.

So yes, I was one of the poor schmoes that was still tuned in when the Royals (43-59) wrapped up a 3-1 win over the Red Sox (62-38) right before 2 a.m. but it won't be some life-changing event I'll tell anybody about. Nope, it was just something to do before I went to bed late as usual.

All things considered, Lester was fine in his return. He went 5.1 innings, allowing one earned run on seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts. Red Sox manager Terry Francona wanted to limit him to 80 pitches but Lester's night was over after 89, no big deal.

Kyle Davies had a great performance (by his poor standards), going 6.1 innings, allowing one earned run on five hits with a walk and six strikeouts.

J.D. Drew was supposed to go on the DL last night (with Lester getting activated) with some fake shoulder injury but for some reason that was delayed for a day while rookie Kyle Weiland went back to Pawtucket. I mention this only because Josh Reddick (3 hits, 2 doubles, 1 awesome diving catch) continues to do everything in his power to lock the job down for 2011.

Reddick gave Boston a 1-0 lead with an RBI double in the second which scored Carl Crawford (0 for 6 with 4 strikeouts).

Billy Butler tied it up at one for Kansas City with his RBI double in the sixth which scored ex-Yankee Melky Cabrera (4 hits).

Despite 13 hits, the Red Sox looked like the team in the early part of 2011 that couldn't come through with the clutch hit (11 left on base). Marco Scutaro was the goat as he came up with Reddick at third with one out in the 12th but a bungled sign led to him not bunting and Reddick getting caught in a rundown. If that wasn't enough, Scutaro promptly singled but tried to stretch it into a double and got thrown out at second by a few feet. Yeesh, rough inning.

Matt Albers (1.2 innings), Daniel Bard (1 inning), Jonathan Papelbon (1 inning), Franklin Morales (1.2 innings) and Dan Wheeler (1.1 innings) all had scoreless outings but once Randy Williams-the last man in the bullpen and on the roster-was summoned, you know it was probably over.

Williams went two innings but Mike Aviles plated Eric Hosmer (3 hits) with a sacrifice in the 14th and Alex Escobar knocked in Jeff Francoeur with a sacrifice fly. Somehow the Royals still had closer Joakim Soria available and he came on to strikeout the side for his 18th save of the season.

Worcester native Tim Collins threw a 1-2-3 seventh on 10 pitches for the Royals. Great improbable story (look it up) about a local guy that has made it.

Rookie Danny Duffy faces Andrew Miller tonight as the Red Sox look to bounce back from an unexpected loss to one of MLB's worst teams. Making matters worse, the Yankees beat the A's last night meaning they're now two games back in the AL East.

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Time to pull the plug on old man Smoltz

A wise man once said, "you can't make chicken salad out of chicken shit." Don't the Red Sox know that right now as John Smoltz at this point in his hallowed, Hall of Fame career is basically chicken shit every fifth day.

In game one of a pivotal four game set in the new Yankee Stadium, Smoltz got rocked and the Yankees (66-42) rolled 13-6.

Staked to a 3-1 lead, Smoltz couldn't hold it as he and PawSox call-up Billy Traber (who I had never heard of before yesterday) gave up an eight-spot to the Bombers.

Smoltz's final line: 3.1 innings, eight earned runs, nine hits, four walks, three strikeouts. The question now: will that be his last start for the Red Sox (and his career)? Maybe he could be used for an inning or two out of the bullpen but at the moment, the Sox (62-45) desperately need starting pitching, like Kate Hudson (A-Rod's main squeeze) needs a boob job.

With the loss, Boston fell 3.5 games behind New York while also ensuring that even if they win the remaining three games this weekend, they'll still occupy second place.

The ironic thing was that last night Joba Chamberlain (8-2) was not on his game but he looked like Tim Lincecum next to Smoltz's batting practice stuff. Joba lasted only five innings, giving up four earned runs on six hits with a career-high seven walks and five strikeouts.

Dustin Pedroia (3 hits, 2 RBIs, walk) hit a solo shot to right in the third as the Red Sox grabbed a 1-0 lead.

Johnny Damon (3 hits, 3 runs) answered with a solo shot to the same cheap spot in right, to tie it in the bottom of the third.

Casey Kotchman made the most of his first start for Boston as he cranked a two-run bomb to the exact same place in the fourth, giving Boston a 3-1 lead.

In the huge fourth, Melky Cabrera (2 hits) and Jorge Posada (3 hits, 2 runs) both crushed three-run homers.

Mike Lowell (2 hits) made it 9-4 with an RBI single in the fifth but New York added single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh including another bomb, a solo job by Mark Teixeira (3 hits, 2 runs) in the seventh.

The Red Sox scored two in the ninth for yucks.

Clearly, Josh Beckett needs to play his usual role of stopper tonight as he opposes former Marlins teammate A.J. Burnett. The Red Sox' season is spinning out of control and it needs something positive.