Well At Least Brock Holt Cares

The Red Sox absolutely still can't score runs but that's ok at the moment since their pitching has been great and they're playing the Twins who are equally terrible. After last night's 1-0 victory, Boston (33-38 overall, 19-19 home) took the middle game of the series 2-1 tonight at Fenway Park vs. Minnesota (32-37 overall, 17-20 away). It was the third time in a week that they'd scored less than three runs but won, that's pretty hard to do.

Brock Holt (2 for 4, double, 2 runs, stolen base) continued to be one of the only reasons to tune in to the Red Sox at least so this season. He made his MLB debut in center field this evening and obviously turned in a web gem with a diving catch after Jonny Gomes lost the ball in the twilight sky. Magically, he has turned into the leadoff hitter that the team desperately needed.

Jon Lester (8-7) is over .500 for the first time in 2014. He threw 33 pitches in the rocky first inning but hung in there to go 6.1 innings, allowing one earned run on four hits with six strikeouts and one walk. Can Boston just sign him to the long-term deal that he deserves already?

Dustin Pedroia's (2 for 4) RBI double in the first scored Holt and Xander Bogaerts' sacrifice fly in the third plated Holt for the 2-0 lead. Joe Mauer's RBI double in the sixth provided Minnesota's lone run. Former Yankees bust Phil Hughes (7-3; 8 innings, 2 earned runs, 8 hits, 6 strikeouts, 0 walks) is really coming into his own with the Twins, not that anybody in the world has noticed.

Burke Badenhop and Craig Breslow each notched an out in the seventh before Junichi Tazawa struck out the side in the eighth for the hold (his 7th of the season). Koji Uehara was unavailable (rest) so Edward Mujica was called on for the save. Naturally the compete opposite of what you'd expect actually occurred: he had a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts for his second save as a Red Sox.

It isn't officially summer until Saturday but I say go with it since the weather is finally cooperating. This series wraps up tomorrow afternoon (1:35, NESN) with John Lackey (8-4) facing Kyle Gibson (6-5). Skip work, school or whatever and go to this matchup, mostly to enjoy the sun and see if the Red Sox can earn a rare sweep.

Boston won't return to Fenway until June 30 (vs. Cubs) since they head out on a 10-game road trip after tomorrow's matinee: four in Oakland, three in Seattle and three in New York vs. Yankees. That is a very tough stretch and if they hope to go anywhere this season, they have to at least win half of them.

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They Don't Call Them The Bronx Bombers For Nothing (Jumps Off Tobin Bridge)

The series opener at Yankee Stadium tonight followed the same script that's been well-established in 2012: New York hit plenty of homers (5, haha all solo) while Boston lost the game. The only plot twist was that it was over in 2:49 which is about two hours shorter than a normal Red Sox-Yankees marathon.

The Yankees (71-48, 38-23 home) beat the Red Sox (58-62, 29-28 away) 6-4 in a contest that never really felt in doubt even though Dustin Pedroia's three-run homer in the third (his 10th of the season) gave Boston an ill-fated 4-3 lead. So far, New York is 7-3 against Boston this season.

The Red Sox find themselves 13.5 games out of first place, the most since they were 14 games back on September 19, 2001. Something to keep in mind when they plummet below that tomorrow and we look for the next mind-numbing, soul-crushing statistic.

New York tied a franchise record for most players (10) with 10+ homers in a season, they also did that in 1998.

For whatever reason, Franklin Morales (3-4) gets rocked every time he faces the Yanks. Tonight, he allowed five earned runs on six hits in 5.1 innings with three strikeouts and a walk. He gave up the first four homers before reliever Clayton Mortensen served up the final one.

Nick Swisher (17th of the season) went deep in the first, Curtis Granderson (31st of the season) followed suit in the second inning and Russell Martin (13th of the season) went back-to-back to make it 3-0. The Yankees had nine hits, five of them were homers and they didn't have any other extra-base hits. I guess they love their home runs.

Boston got all four of their runs in the third as Pedro Ciriaco's ground out scored Mike Aviles (2 hits) then Pedroia hit a three-run homer on his 29th birthday.

Derek Jeter (10th of the season) tied it in the fifth with a solo homer then Jason Nix added an RBI single in the sixth and Swisher's second homer-in the seventh-gave New York a 6-4 advantage.

Phil Hughes (12-10) usually can't do anything against the Red Sox but even he gets it done against this sad-sack outfit these days. He went seven innings and allowed four runs (0 earned) on four hits with four strikeouts and a walk. The unearned runs were all the result of his throwing error, don't get me started on why that rule (pitchers not getting charged with runs on their own mistakes) doesn't make any sense.

David Robertson pitched a scoreless eighth for his 17th save of the season and Rafael Soriano had a strikeout in a clean ninth for his 30th save of the season.

I'm psyched that I'm going to a wedding tomorrow afternoon/night so I'll probably miss all of the game (4:05 p.m., NESN) unless I get bored and check Twitter/my phone or it's on at the bar. Jon Lester (6-10) faces David Phelps (3-3) in the middle game of the three-game weekend set.

UPDATE 8/19: Felix Doubront was placed on the DL (retroactive to August 10) and infielder Mauro Gomez was recalled from Pawtucket to fill his roster spot in Boston.

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Beckett Stumbles But Still Manages To Beat Yankees

Josh Beckett couldn't keep up his dominant form (3-0, 1.00 ERA) against the Yankees this season but he still found a way to win as the Red Sox triumphed 9-5 tonight at Fenway Park.

One of my childhood favorites Mo Vaughn was also in the building for the second day of the Jimmy Fund telethon.

Boston (83-52) evened the series (1-1) and moved to 11-3 vs. New York (81-53) this season while going back to a 1.5 game lead in the AL East.

Just as CC Sabathia finally found a way to beat the Red Sox yesterday, Beckett (12-5) got it done despite having far from his best outing. He gave Boston seven innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on six hits with three walks and eight strikeouts.

Yankees starter Phil Hughes (4-5) continued his mostly forgettable 2011. He went 5.2 innings, allowing six earned runs on eight hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Remind me again who will start Game 2 of the ALDS for the Yanks?

Boston used the longball-three two-run homers-to rough up Hughes and a pair of relievers: Boone Logan and Luis Ayala.

Derek Jeter (2 hits, stolen base) gave New York a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the third. Boston answered in the bottom of the inning as Marco Scutaro scored on Dustin Pedroia's (2 hits) ground out and Jed Lowrie knocked in Jacoby Ellsbury (2 hits, 2 runs) with an RBI single.

David Ortiz's two-run bomb (28th of the season) put the Red Sox up 4-1 in the fifth but New York countered with four runs in the sixth. Robinson Cano and Eric Chavez had RBI doubles (two runs scored on Chavez's since Josh Reddick had an error in the right field corner) and Eduardo Nunez's sacrifice fly gave the Yankees a 5-4 advantage.

Jason Varitek's hit and run lucky swing resulted in an RBI double which tied it at five in the sixth and Ellsbury put Boston ahead for good with a two-run shot (his 24th of the season; 1st career opposite field homer) off Logan and over the Monster.

Varitek wrapped it up with his two-run blast (his 10th of the season; 11th time he's had 10+ homers). Daniel Bard got his 31st hold with a 1-2-3 hold (on 13 pitches) and Jonathan Papelbon got a 1-2-3 ninth in the non-save situation. Pap struck out a batter and all seven of his pitches were strikes. The good news is they should both be available tomorrow night too since they didn't appear on Tuesday.

Tomorrow in the series finale, Jon Lester faces Yankees train wreck A.J. Burnett in another matchup that clearly favors the home team.

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Red Sox are still alive thanks to tidy 2-1 win in Bronx

This season still has the look and feel of one that will ultimately end in disappointment but you have to give the Boston Red Sox credit for hanging around in baseball's best division.

The Sox (64-49) earned a split at Yankee Stadium yesterday afternoon with a nail-biting 2-1 win over the Yankees (69-42).

Boston is still six games behind New York in the AL East and 4.5 behind Tampa Bay (who broke a five-game losing streak last night).

Jon Lester (12-7) broke his career-worst four game losing streak with 6.1 scoreless innings. He allowed four hits with three walks and six strikeouts.

Daniel Bard entered with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth but he was able to strikeout Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher.

The Sox had a 2-0 lead thanks to two runs in the second inning. Bill Hall drove in Ryan Kalish with an infield hit and Hall came around on J.D. Drew's groundout.

Jacoby Ellsbury was moved to ninth in the batting order after starting 0-for-16 since he returned from the DL. The move paid off as he got a hit, walked, was hit by a pitch and stole four bases (tying Jerry Remy's franchise record).

Mark Teixeira hit a solo homer off Bard in the eighth but Jonathan Papelbon had one of his best outings of the season for his 28th save.

He got out of a jam in the eighth and then struck out the side in the ninth.

Phil Hughes (13-5) was the tough-luck loser since he went six innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits with a walk and three strikeouts. He seemed to be on the ropes early as the Red Sox worked his pitch count but he settled down in a big way after the rocky second inning.

Boston heads to Toronto for three beginning tonight against the Blue Jays, one of baseball's hottest teams. The Jays also lead MLB in home runs.

Daisuke Matsuzaka, who's been great since the All-Star break faces Ricky Romero, a good young lefty that nevertheless the Sox have owned.

How are we going to beat this team or Tampa Bay?

Don't expect anyone to have seen it since the Bruins and Celtics were in playoff games at the same exact time, but hey look it's the Red Sox and the Yankees.

For the 10 hopeless bastards that chose to watch baseball over the much more important basketball and hockey games, Sox (14-15) starter Josh Beckett did his best to make sure you didn't enjoy anything at Fenway Park last night if you were a Red Sox fan.

The Yankees (20-8) won 10-3, thanks to a six-run sixth inning. In 5.1 innings, Beckett gave up nine earned runs on nine hits with three walks and eight strikeouts.

He started out with seven strikeouts in the first three innings but typical of any Beckett hot start like that, especially against New York, he completely fell apart as soon as you noticed how much he was dealing in the first few innings.

Phil Hughes (4-0) has finally found his form after a couple forgettable years bouncing between the Yankees' rotation and bullpen. In seven innings, he gave up two earned runs on seven hits with a walk and seven strikeouts.

Nick Swisher had a three-run bomb in the fourth for New York and the six runs in the sixth were all plated by walks, hit by pitches, a sacrifice fly and singles.

C.C. Sabathia opposes Clay Buchholz this afternoon.