Lester Starts To Figure It Out, Months Too Late In The 2012 Red Sox Season

For the first time since June 5-22 (when he had four in a row), Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester strung together back-to-back quality starts.

His solid outing this afternoon helped Boston (59-62, 30-28 away) beat New York (71-49, 38-24 home) 4-1 at Yankee Stadium. They have split the first two games of the series so tomorrow night's finale will decade who takes it.

Lester (7-10) lasted seven innings, allowing one earned run on five hits with four strikeouts and two walks. It's amazing what happens when he executes, the Red Sox look like a completely different team. Now if only Josh Beckett wasn't one of the most useless athletes in professional sports, then they'd get somewhere.

Yankees killer Pedro Ciriaco went 4 for 4 with a double, run and stolen base. My favorite part of his great game is that he saw seven total pitches in four at bats. Why wait around? Somewhere Nomar Garciaparra nods his approval. Ciriaco is 14 for 28 lifetime vs. New York, the highest career average ever against the Yankees (minimum 25 plate appearances).

Adrian Gonzalez (2 hits, walk) hit a two-run homer (his 14th of the season) in the first inning against David Phelps (3-4) for an immediate 2-0 lead.

Curtis Granderson (double) homered (32nd of the season) for the second game in a row, this time a solo shot in the fourth which cut it to 2-1.

Nick Punto's RBI double in the fifth scored Ciriaco for a 3-1 Red Sox lead.

Phelps settled down and went 6.2 innings, allowing three earned runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.

Boston tacked on an insurance run (which they ended up not needing) in the ninth as Scott Podsednik scored on Cody Eppley's wild pitch.

Andrew Bailey got the first out in the eighth then the Yale batterymates (Craig Breslow to Ryan Lavarnway) induced a double play by Robinson Cano to end the eighth inning.

Alfredo Aceves had a scoreless ninth for his 25th save of the season, he allowed one hit but also struck out a batter.

Nick Swisher was 3 for 4 in the loss.

Beckett (5-10) opposes Hiroki Kuroda (11-8) tomorrow night (8:00 p.m., ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball). Boston is 4-7 against New York so far this season but they can win their second straight series in the Bronx (2 out of 3) by coming away with a victory tomorrow.

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Red Sox Piss Another Season Down The Drain, Misery Continues In Baltimore

Aaron Cook had a no-hitter entering the sixth inning and the Red Sox led the Orioles 2-0. As quick as you could say, no October baseball at Fenway, Baltimore scored five runs en route to a 5-3 win tonight at Camden Yards.

Boston (57-61, 28-27 away) latest slide all but guarantees that September will be completely meaningless. There is no chance this team will push for a playoff spot, at this point they are going to struggle to finish over .500 and in front of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Baltimore (64-53, 32-28 home) only had six hits but they made them count by going 4 for 13 with runners in scoring position. The Red Sox were 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position while they both left six men on base.

The uniquely terrible aspects to this loss for Boston included a throwing error by Cook that led to three runs plus the ejections of Adrian Gonzalez and Bobby Valentine. After Pedro Strop quick pitched Gonzo in the eighth then got him to ground out, the normally church mouse quiet first baseman sort of showed some emotion. Valentine came out to defend him/fire up his worthless team but you can see from the final score how that went.

Cook (3-6) went 5.1 innings, allowing five runs (two earned) on three hits with one strikeout and three walks.

Orioles starter Miguel Gonzalez (5-2) went six innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits with two strikeouts and a walk. Baltimore's bullpen locked it down, especially Strop who had a 1-2-3 eighth with two strikeouts for his 20th hold and closer Jim Johnson who notched his 35th save with a clean ninth including a strikeout.

Jacoby Ellsbury's (2 hits) RBI double and Carl Crawford's sacrifice fly scored Nick Punto (2 runs) staked the Red Sox to a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning.

The Orioles sixth included an RBI single by Nate McLouth, Adam Jones grounded into a fielder's choice and Cook threw the ball away which allowed J.J. Hardy to score, Matt Wieters had an RBI double and Mark Reyonlds ended it with a two-run double.

All Boston could muster after Baltimore's big sixth inning was an RBI ground out by Crawford in the seventh.

Clay Buchholz (10-3) is all that stands in the way of a three-game sweep by the Orioles tomorrow night (7:05 p.m., NESN) as he takes on Chris Tillman (5-2). The only question is how will the Red Sox find a new and different way to lose?

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Red Sox Fall To A Mighty Depressing 2-4 On West Coast Trip Thanks To 3rd Walk-Off Loss

It's a good thing that A) nobody is watching or B) that nobody really cares about the Red Sox this season because this current West Coast road trip would give you nightmares all summer, trust the sucker that has watched or listened to most of it.

Tonight, Boston (42-39, 21-18 away) suffered another mind-numbing loss, 3-2 to Oakland (40-42, 21-19 home) at O.co Coliseum.

This was the 81st game of the season for the Red Sox-the exact halfway point-meaning that they are on pace for 84 wins. How mediocre.

Making matters much worse, it came on a walk-off sacrifice fly by old punching bag Coco Crisp in the bottom of the ninth that scored Cliff Pennington. Alfredo Aceves (0-6) blew his fourth save of the season but he wasn't helped out by Ryan Kalish's error on the RBI single by Brandon Moss that tied it at two. Compounding that, Bobby Valentine decided to pitch to Crisp with runners on the corners and one out. Ugh.

It was a Tour De Force of shitty baseball from the Red Sox who have scored two or less runs in four straight games and five of six overall on this swing (2-4) through the dredge of the AL West. Boston had runners on first and second with no outs in the top of the ninth but somehow didn't score a run as Nick Punto bunted into a double play (really) then Kalish was caught stealing third base. How that's possible outside of Little League, we'll never know.

Jon Lester's best outing in a month and a half went all for naught. He allowed a lead-off homer to Crisp (his 3rd of the season) in the first but he was locked in after that, going 6.2 innings and allowing one earned run on four hits with a season-high nine strikeouts and one walk.

Former Red Sox doughboy Bartolo Colon was similarly on point, he went six innings and allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits with three strikeouts and a walk. Not bad for a guy making his first start off the DL.

Then again, anybody could shutdown Boston's limp lineup right now. They had seven hits and all but one was a single. Even worse, they were 0-for-8 tonight with runners in scoring position.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia (16th of the season) tied it with a solo homer in the second then David Ortiz scored on an error in the fourth, giving Boston the temporary 2-1 advantage.

Mr. Single himself Adrian Gonzalez was 2-for-4 (both singles of course) to extend his fraudulent hit streak to an MLB-best 14 games. Woo, feel the excitement.

After striking out pinch-hitter Seth Smith to end the seventh, Vicente Padilla managed to not allow a run in the eighth despite facing runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs after an error by Mike Aviles and a single. Oakland had a sacrifice and intentional walk but he struck out the last two batters to record his 18th hold of the season. If Aceves ever gets demoted, Padilla should be the next closer. Just saying.

Lefty Jerry Blevins (2-0) got the last five outs for the A's to receive the unexpected win.

The Red Sox will try to restore a shred of dignity while they close out this miserable road trip (their last before the All-Star break) tomorrow afternoon (4:05 p.m., NESN). Aaron Cook (2-1) faces rookie AJ Griffin (0-0) on the Fourth of July and I doubt that you have better plans than to watch what should be one of the better pitching matchups of the season. Haha! Plus, does it get more patriotic than Oakland?

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Doubront Flirts With No-Hitter & Red Sox Offense Finally Explodes

Not to get all Ken Burns on you (making you fall asleep instantly) but baseball will always be a simple game: if you get good starting pitching and timely hitting, your team will be tough to beat.

For once this season, the Red Sox (31-32, 17-13 away) got both of those key elements in a 10-2 triumph vs. the Marlins (32-31, 17-18 home) this evening at Marlins Amusement Park.

Miami is reeling (no pun intended) as they've lost eight of their last nine games. Boston heads out of town with a satisfying interleague series win (2-1). The two teams will meet again next week as the Marlins come to Fenway Park for three games (June 19-21).

Felix Doubront (7-3) carried a no-hitter for 5.2 innings before Jose Reyes emphatically ended it with a long solo homer (his 2nd of the season) in the sixth inning. Justin Ruggiano's fielder's choice scored a run in the seventh but that's all Miami would get against Doubront. He went seven strong innings (the longest outing of his short pro career), allowing two earned runs on three hits with a career-high nine strikeouts and one walk.

Boston's offense kept chipping away (14 hits) at the Marlins and it paid off as they forced Miami manager Ozzie Guillen to use six pitchers. Ricky Nolasco (6-5) took the loss after allowing four runs (three earned) on five hits in six innings with four strikeouts and a walk.

Save these numbers in your head since they won't happen again this season: the Red Sox' top four hitters combined to have nine hits, seven RBIs and six runs. Plus, Boston was 7-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

Scott Podsednik (2 runs, 2 hits) made it 1-0 with a groundout in the third inning. David Ortiz (3 RBIs, 2 hits) had an opposite field home run (his 15th of the season) in the fourth. The Red Sox got some insurance in the sixth on Adrian Gonzalez's (3 hits, 2 RBIs) RBI single and a sacrifice fly by Ortiz that opened up a 4-0 advantage.

Things went bananas (in a good way) in the eighth as the Red Sox piled up six more runs after 11 men came to the plate. Nick Punto started the inning with a pinch hit double and he later added a two-run RBI single for the final run. In between that, Dustin Pedroia (2 hits, 2 runs), Gonzalez and Ortiz had three run-scoring singles in a row. Jarrod Saltalamacchia plated another run with a sacrifice fly.

Thankfully, tomorrow is an off-day so we can all mentally prepare for the hype surrounding Boston's first trip to Wrigley Field since 2005. The Cubs (21-41) are the worst team in MLB but that doesn't mean this weekend shouldn't be fun since these two teams so rarely play each other (and yes I remember the Cubs were in Boston last season).

Day drinking should be especially helpful on Friday (2:20 p.m., NESN) as Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-1) faces Ryan Dempster (2-3). Jon Lester (3-4) gets former Notre Dame wide receiver Jeff Samardzija (5-4) Saturday night (7:15 p.m., Fox) and Josh Beckett (4-7) opposes Paul Maholm (4-5) Sunday night (8:00 p.m., ESPN).

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Breaking News: For The First Time In 2012, The Red Sox Are Ahead Of Someone In The AL East

After 53 games (nearly a third of the 2012 regular season), the Boston Red Sox decided they had enough of the dingy American League East basement.

They finally did something about it by beating the Toronto Blue Jays (27-26, 15-12 home) 7-4 this afternoon at Rogers Centre. The win clinched the series for the Red Sox (28-25, 15-11 away) while also sending Toronto into last-place.

Felix Doubront (6-2) continued to earn his surprising moniker as best Boston starting pitcher this season with another solid outing. He tied a season-high with 6.1 innings, he allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits with seven strikeouts and a walk. Like Clay Buchholz on Friday night, both of Doubront's runs came on solo homers. Needless to say, for whatever reason the ball flies out of the Rogers Centre even when the roof is closed.

File this away since it will likely never happen again this season but Nick Punto was the catalyst of Boston's offense. He went 3 for 4 with two runs and two RBIs while also falling a triple short of a cycle.

Alfredo Aceves wrapped up the win with a 1-2-3 ninth (including a strikeout) for his 14th save of the season.

Blue Jays starter Kyle Drabek (4-6) had another underachieving start for a guy of his talents. He went 6.2 innings but allowed five runs (four earned) on six hits with four strikeouts and four walks.

Boston put up four runs in the second inning thanks to some timely hitting and terrible defense by Toronto. Will Middlebrooks (RBI single), Punto (RBI double) and Daniel Nava (two-run single) all had two-out RBIs. Nava's "hit" deserves an asterisk though since it was an easy catch that Blue Jays center fielder Colby Rasmus failed to make. It's a joke that the Blue Jays scorekeeper didn't credit him with an error, maybe his overbearing dad is in charge of that thankless task.

Backup catcher Jeff Mathis (3rd of the season) had a solo shot in the third to get Toronto within 3-1. Even though Middlebrooks grounded into a double play, a run scored in the fourth. The Blue Jays showed some life as Kelly Johnson (2 hits) had an RBI single in the fourth and Jose Bautista (13th of the season) went deep in the fifth, with nobody on base.

David Ortiz scored on Ryan Sweeney's ground out in the eighth and Brett Lawrie answered with an RBI single. Punto added the insurance run in the ninth with his first homer as a Red Sox. Proving that anything in life is possible, light-hitting Punto crushed it 444 feet to right.

Daniel Bard (5-5) faces rookie Drew Hutchison (4-2) tomorrow afternoon (1:07 p.m., NESN) as the Red Sox go for the sweep in Toronto.

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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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Scutaro Shipped To Rockies; Bard Avoids Arbitration

What is it with the Boston Red Sox and shortstops? Since they traded franchise icon Nomar Garciaparra in 2004 (which turned out well), the formerly coveted position has turned into a revolving door of mostly middling players.

Tonight, the Red Sox traded Marco Scutaro to the Colorado Rockies for pitcher Clayton Mortensen. The righty is 26 and a former first-round sandwich pick in 2007 by the Cardinals. He was traded to Oakland in the Matt Holliday deal and then traded to Colorado last winter for a minor leaguer.

This will be Mortensen's fourth MLB franchise. He put up decent numbers last season: 2-4 with 3.86 ERA in 16 games (6 starts) but from the looks of this move, it was all about dumping salary.

Boston picked up Scutaro's $6 million option earlier this winter so needless to say, it was odd to see him get traded soon after that. Even worse, all that the Red Sox have left at shortstop for 2012 are the dynamic scrub duo of Mike Aviles and Nick Punto. Don't tell me that Jose Iglesias will be the starter since he can't hit enough to play full-time in MLB.

The one positive aspect of this move is that it frees up money to pursue Roy Oswalt, who they desperately need. ESPNBoston also mentioned Cody Ross, a rumor that I hadn't heard before reading that tidbit. He's OK and he would help if Carl Crawford misses time (after wrist surgery) but I'm much more interested in Oswalt just because he has way more potential to help.

No matter how you spin it, the Red Sox seem destined for another third-place finish in the AL East again (for the third year in a row) behind the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays. While those teams have improved themselves (NY) or kept its core intact (TB), the Red Sox have plugged holes (closer, set-up) but not improved their biggest issues (chemistry, starting pitching). Plus, they added the most self-absorbed and arrogant manager in MLB.

I'm not jumping off the bandwagon, I'll always root for the Red Sox but over the past few seasons, they've made it very hard to like them. Ownership is driven just by making money and not winning games, what should really matter. Likewise, many of their players over the last few years have been obsessed with personal statistics. how much they're getting paid and other inconsequential things. In other words, the Red Sox are now No. 4 in my top four (Bruins, Patriots, Celtics, Red Sox) rankings of local professional teams. It will take so much to change that any time soon.

In other Red Sox news today, the team reached a one-year, non-guaranteed contract for 2012 with Daniel Bard. They avoided arbitration with the reliever who will try to become a starter in spring training. Now only Alfredo Aceves, Andrew Bailey and David Ortiz are left to sign before February 1, the deadline for when the Red Sox are forced to go to a hearing with any of those guys if they haven't reached an agreement yet.

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Red Sox Trade Jed Lowrie & Kyle Weiland, For Astros Closer Mark Melancon

Another day and another interesting move by the Boston Red Sox.

Today, they traded spare parts with infielder Jed Lowrie and pitcher Kyle Weiland to the Houston Astros for closer Mark Melancon.

I'm a big fan of the move, assuming that Melancon will be the setup guy for either Andrew Bailey (A's) or Ryan Madson (free agent, of the Phillies). I'll grant you that predicting who will be a successful closer or not is basically impossible but Boston can't pin its hopes on a guy who is coming from the NL Central to the AL East.

This also means that Daniel Bard will be in the rotation (please no); as far as I'm concerned, Melancon should not be construed as Jonathan Papelbon's replacement.

Houston was the worst team in MLB last season with 56 wins and Melancon went 20 for 25 in save chances with three holds during his first year as a closer. He's 26 and he had a 2.78 ERA and 1.22 WHIP with 66 strikeouts, 26 walks in 74 1/3 innings.

He was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2006 and traded to the Astros in 2010 for Lance Berkman. Best of all, he's very cheap ($421,000), he's not eligible for arbitration until 2014 and he won't be a free agent until 2017.

I'm psyched to say goodbye to Lowrie who is basically J.D. Drew lite, meaning he never met a minor injury he didn't milk for all that it was worth. He hit .252 in four seasons for Boston and never really found a position since he struggled defensively at third base and shortstop. The 309 at bats he had in 2011 were a career-high which tells you all you need to know. See you later Stanford guy.

It's silly at this point to say one way or another if Weiland will ever amount to much at the MLB level. He went 0-3 with a 7.66 ERA in seven appearances last season for the Red Sox. Maybe with less pressure in Houston and more time to grow, rather than being thrust into vital games right away, the former Notre Dame closer can be productive. Only time will tell on that one.

UPDATE 12/14: For once, Boston wasted no time in finding a replacement but in this case, it was one scrub for another as they signed utility infielder Nick Punto to a two-year, $3 million deal to essentially replace Lowrie.

A member of the 2011 World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, Punto is 34-years-old and he's been in MLB for 11 seasons. For his career, he's played more than 250 games at three positions: second base, third base and shortstop.

He played in 63 regular season games for St. Louis and in 133 at bats last season with the Cardinals, he hit .278 with a .388 OBP and .421 SLG. Known mostly for his versatility and glove work, he also appeared in 15 playoff games so he earned his ring.

Punto's career began in Philly in 2001 before he went to Minnesota in 2003. The Twins are where he made his career, he spent seven seasons there before moving to St. Louis last offseason. Among active players with 2500 at bats, Punto has the second lowest slugging percentage (.327) which is only better than Cesar Izturis (.322).

He's dependable and tough (Lowrie's two biggest weaknesses) so there is little doubt that Red Sox fans will quickly fall in love with his style.

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The Sox are not very good, I've already accepted it

I was all set to watch the Red Sox-Twins series finale yesterday, some day baseball on a Thursday afternoon but it quickly lost my attention as Minnesota shelled Tim Wakefield and won 8-0 to take the opening series at Target Field.

The Twins (7-3) pounded out 15 hits while Boston (4-5) managed six hits and committed three errors. It was not pretty unless you're a fan of Francisco Liriano (1-0).

A former phenom, Liriano missed the 2007 season after Tommy John surgery and in the last two seasons he hasn't been able to find his rookie form. Still, he's only 26 so you can't count him out just yet.

The Red Sox did their best to make him feel good about himself, he went seven scoreless innings, allowing four hits, two walks and eight strikeouts.

Justin Morneau and Nick Punto led Minnesota's legit offense with three hits, Michael Cuddyer had two hits and three RBIs (including a two-run homer) and Denard Span kept getting on base with two hits, two RBIs and run.

Dustin Pedroia was the only guy to show up for Boston's anemic offense, he had half their hits (three).

It doesn't figure to get any easier for the Sox as they come home to the rain and cold temperatures and they have four games against the Tampa Bay Rays starting tonight at frigid Fenway.