Red Sox Sweep White Sox & Rays Get Swept By A's, Nice Weekend

At this point with only 24 games left in the regular season, I'm comfortable in saying that reaching the playoffs is almost a foregone conclusion for the Red Sox. Boston (82-56 overall, 45-24 home) swept the hapless White Sox (56-79 overall, 24-45 away) in three games this weekend, culminating with a 7-6 victory this afternoon at Fenway Park. The sweep felt that much better since the Rays dropped all three of their games in Oakland so suddenly they trail Boston by 5.5 games for first place in the AL East.

The Red Sox can be excused for going up 5-0 on the White Sox by the third inning then putting it on cruise control, they are 8-2 in their last 10 games and have won seven of their last eight games. Chicago cut it to 5-4 in the fourth and 7-6 in the eighth but they couldn't come all the way back. Felix Doubront (3.2 innings, 4 earned runs, 7 hits, 90 pitches) was the main reason why this was way tighter than it had to be. Staked to the big lead, he just couldn't put guys away.

Brandon Workman (4-2) got the win in relief but the real stars out of the bullpen today for Boston were Franklin Morales (4 outs), Junichi Tazawa (got out of bases loaded jam to end the seventh) and of course Koji Uehara who recorded a 1-2-3 ninth for his 16th save of the season.

Jacoby Ellsbury (2 runs, walk, stolen base) started the scoring with a two-run single in the second and David Ortiz came through with a two-run double in the same frame. Stephen Drew made it 5-0 with his 11th homer of the season, a solo shot to left center in the third.

White Sox kept getting on base in the fourth and Jeff Keppinger "put in on the board!" (Hawk Harrelson's deranged voice) with a sacrifice fly. Dayan Viciedo followed with an RBI double and Conor Gillaspie trimmed Boston's lead to 5-4 with a two-run single.

The game took so long (3:39) because there were numerous delays: White Sox manager Robin Ventura was ejected for arguing a call, the Red Sox used six pitchers and Shane Victorino left with a hip injury. Dustin Pedroia (2 hits, run, walk) reached base on an infield hit in the fourth and Ellsbury scored on Gillaspie's throwing error. Ortiz knocked in another run in the inning with an RBI single.

Paul Konerko (2 hits, run, walk) drove in Alexei Ramirez (3 hits, w runs, 2 stolen bases) in the fifth with a single and Tyler Flowers (2 hits) smashed a solo homer in the eighth.

It being September 1, the Red Sox made numerous moves since the rosters expanded: for me the two important ones were the trade for Providence College (my alma mater) alum John McDonald (East Lyme, CT native who lives in Scituate, MA) and designating Daniel Bard for assignment. McDonald is a spectacular shortstop and second basemen that should give them some options in the postseason and down the stretch while Bard's career is truly at a crossroads now.

Thankfully the next five series for the Red Sox are all against teams above .500, that should be good preparation for October not to mention way more entertaining contests. The Tigers (80-57, 1st in AL Central) come to Fenway for a marquee three-game series starting tomorrow afternoon (1:35, NESN)-Labor Day. The possible ALCS preview begins with John Lackey (8-11) vs. Doug Fister (11-7). Max Scherzer (19-1) goes for his MLB-leading 20th win of the season on Tuesday (7:10, NESN) against Jon Lester (12-8) and Ryan Dempster (7-9) wraps it up on Wednesday (7:10, NESN) vs. Rick Porcello (11-7) in what could be a real life version of Home Run Derby.

Boston has experienced incredible luck in the past few weeks in terms of missing top pitchers (Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain, Clayton Kershaw, Zach Greinke and Chris Sale) and that continues against Detroit since Justin Verlander pitched today vs. Cleveland. Additionally and perhaps more importantly, Miguel Cabrera has sat out the last two games with an injury so who knows his status for these three games. The baseball fan in me wants to see him out there but since the Tigers have such a huge lead (7.5 games over Indians), it would be silly to throw him out there at less than 100%.

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Cody Ross & Adrian Gonzalez Combine For 10 RBIs In Red Sox' Rout Of White Sox

Pedro Hernandez's Major League debut was nothing to write home about as far as he or his team was concerned. More importantly, Red Sox fans went home happy as Boston pummeled Chicago 10-1 tonight at Fenway Park.

White Sox (50-41, 26-19 away) manager Robin Ventura left his rookie in to receive a serious beating. In four plus innings, Hernandez (0-1) allowed eight earned runs on 12 hits (three home runs) with two strikeouts and a walk.

Cody Ross (3 for 6, 2 HRs, double, 3 runs, 6 RBIs) and Adrian Gonzalez (3 for 4, 4 RBIs, run, HR) formed a lethal 3-4 combination for the Red Sox' (47-45, 24-25 home) reconfigured batting order.

Felix Doubront (10-4) became the first Red Sox pitcher to reach double-digit wins this season. Jon Lester and Josh Beckett have combined for the same amount as Doubront, just like Boston mapped it out. In six innings, Doubront allowed one earned run on four hits with two strikeouts and three walks. He was helped out by two double plays turned by his defense.

Having Jacoby Ellsbury (3 hits, 3 runs, double) and Carl Crawford (2 runs, single) makes a difference at the top of the order, huh?

Paul Konerko's RBI single in the first inning marked the 10th straight game that the visiting team has scored at least one run in the first at Fenway.

Things picked up immensely for the Red Sox as Gonzalez tied it with an RBI single in the first then Ross hit a pair of three-run bombs (his 14th and 15th of the season) in the third and fourth inning.

Gonzalez went back-to-back with Ross in the fourth then capped off this laugher with a two-run single in the sixth.

With the big lead, Matt Albers, Mark Melancon and Andrew Miller pitched three perfect innings of relief with three strikeouts.

Dustin Pedroia is expected to be activated off the DL tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., NESN), hopefully he's discovered a bionic thumb or something so he doesn't hurt it for the 12th time this season. Clay Buchholz (8-3) faces Jose Quintana (4-1) in the finale as Boston goes for the series win.

UPDATE 7/19: In their first minor move shortly before the trade deadline, the Red Sox dealt PawSox pitcher Justin Germano to the Cubs for cash considerations.

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Red Sox Continue To Feast On The AL Central

In this soft as puppy poo portion of their schedule, the Boston Red Sox are taking advantage of bad pitchers and mediocre teams.

The Red Sox (9-10, 6-5 away) won their fifth straight game, 10-3 tonight against the White Sox (10-10, 3-6 home) at U.S. Cellular Field.

Darnell McDonald (2 hits, 2 runs) knocked in a career-high four RBIs, Daniel Bard (2-2) picked up his first career win as a starting pitcher and David Ortiz (2 hits, 2 runs) shows no signs of slowing down as he slugged a two-run bomb.

On a frigid night (39 degrees) in the Windy City, Bard lasted seven innings: throwing 96 pitches, 63 for strikes. He allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits with six strikeouts and a walk. This was a fine start and quells talk of moving him back to the bullpen until his next outing and/or the next bullpen implosion.

John Danks (2-3) tried to be a hero in short sleeves and he was no match for Boston's deep lineup. In 5.2 innings, the lefty allowed seven earned runs on six hits with four strikeouts and four walks.

Many of the Red Sox wore ski masks aka head condoms but it didn't seem to affect them at the plate since they still managed to pile up 13 hits.

The White Sox showed a brief pulse in the beginning of the game as A.J. Pierzynski had an RBI double in the first. Ortiz (4th of the season) crushed his two-run homer to right in the second but Chicago added a run in the third on a passed ball and ageless Paul Konerko (5th of the season) had a solo home run to left in the fifth to make it 3-2.

The roof caved in on Danks quickly in the sixth as he coughed up five runs in the blink of an eye. Cody Ross (2 hits, 2 RBIs) began the rally with an RBI single then McDonald cleared the bases with a three-run double. Marlon Byrd (2 hits) added an RBI single.

Ross and Kelly Shoppach produced RBI singles in the seventh and finally, McDonald (1st of the season) hit a solo home run to center in the ninth.

Jon Lester (0-2) looks for his first win of the season tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., NESN) against Jake Peavy (3-0), who's off to a surprisingly great start. Lester has not been himself in his last few starts so maybe he can put it all together, that would be nice. Boston desperately needs an ace or something resembling a No. 1 or 2 starter. Peavy has been impressive but this is the same guy who looked washed up the last few seasons. Let's see if he can hold down this red-hot lineup.

Boston will also try to reach the .500 mark for the first time this season. Haha high stakes!

Earlier in the day, the Red Sox sent lefty reliever Justin Thomas down to Pawtucket while they recalled lefty Rich Hill. Hopefully the local guy (Milton, MA) can regain the form he showed last season before he got injured. Boston desperately needs another left-handed reliever not named Franklin Morales to match up with all the good lefties in the AL (Cano, Hamilton, Teixeira, Pena). Thomas was clearly in over his head, at least for now he can't hang that this level.

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Someday Soon, Philip Humber Will Be A Great Trivia Answer

It's not a complaint but there was way too much quality sports related programming on TV tonight. I say that because I barely watched any of the Red Sox-White Sox game but I still saw the important stuff.

Boston (8-10, 5-5 away) opened the four-game series with a convincing 10-3 win at U.S. Cellular Field against the White Sox (10-9, 3-5 home).

The Red Sox won their fourth straight game (a tidy 4-0 road trip so far) with a blueprint for what they need to do to pile up victories this season: hit early and often. Eight of nine players in the lineup recorded hits and Boston used three home runs to overpower Philip Humber (1-1), who randomly threw a perfect game last Saturday.

With a rotation that looks shaky, the Red Sox will likely need to count on their many quality hitters to carry them through long portions of this season.

Humber looked nothing like the untouchable pitcher he was against Seattle (that might be a clue). In five innings, he allowed nine earned runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and three walks.

Kevin Youkilis (3 hits, 2 runs) hit a grand slam while Jarrod Saltalamacchia (2 home runs, 3 RBIs) continued to heat up.

The best part is that Boston only needed to use two pitchers to get the job done which is a half or a third of what it usually takes to get through nine innings for this group. Felix Doubront (1-0) picked up his first win of the season with six solid innings. He allowed three earned runs on five hits with two strikeouts and three walks.

Junichi Tazawa pitched three scoreless innings in relief, punctuated by four strikeouts. He only allowed two hits with four strikeouts and no walks.

Adrian Gonzalez's RBI double and David Ortiz's RBI single in the first gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead. Providence native Paul Konerko stroked an RBI double in Chicago's first at bats but Boston posted five more runs in the third inning. Youk (2nd of the season) hit the grand slam to right and Saltalamacchia (3rd of the season) went back-to-back with a solo shot to right.

A.J. Pierzynski had an RBI single in the third and Dayan Viciedo (2 hits) added a solo homer in the fourth that cut it to 7-3 Red Sox.

Saltalamacchia crushed a two-run homer to left center in the fifth and Ryan Sweeney (2 hits) provided the final run with an RBI single in the ninth that scored Mike Aviles (2 runs).

Daniel Bard (1-2) is back in as a starter (boo!) tomorrow night as he takes on John Danks (2-2) at 8:10 p.m. on NESN. Obviously, I want Bard to do well in whatever role he has but at this point, everybody can see that he would be most valuable to the Red Sox bullpen.

The only bad news of the day is that Carl Crawford's elbow problem could keep him out for up to three months. Not what the Red Sox needed to hear with both him and Ellsbury out for extended periods of the 2012 season.

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White Sox sweep the Red Sox at Fenway Park

For the life of me I can't figure out why, since they're not particularly good, but you can't dispute the ironclad fact that the Chicago White Sox own Fenway Park right now.

After polishing the Boston Red Sox off yesterday afternoon 7-4 for a three-game series sweep, Chicago (27-31) won its seventh straight at Fenway. They're 13-2 against Boston (30-26) in their last 15 games and 9-1 since the start of last season. What do you want me to do, call the White Sox my daddy? (Pedro Martinez reference).

A 3-0 lead for the home team didn't mean much as Tim Wakefield (6 innings, 4 earned runs, 7 hits, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts) and the Boston bullpen melted down in a rare midweek afternoon game.

Gavin Floyd (6-5) was shaky at first but he settled down and got the win. He went 6.2 innings, allowing four earned runs on nine hits with a walk and a strikeout.

The Red Sox put up three in the second inning as Jed Lowrie drove in David Ortiz with a ground-rule double and Jarrod Saltalamacchia knocked in two with a single.

Brent Lillibridge got an RBI double in the fourth to pull Chicago within 3-1 before the White Sox tied it in the fifth. Alexei Ramirez (3 hits, 3 run) drove in a run with a ground out before Carlos Quentin hit an RBI double. Wakefield could have got out of the inning on a clear out on the basepaths by Juan Pierre but that's not how the goober umpire saw it. Instead, Quentin got the hit and Boston spiraled out of control.

Lillibridge hit a solo homer in the sixth but Ortiz answered with his 13th of the season in the bottom of the frame to tie it at four.

It was the Paul Konerko show from there as he had an RBI double in the seventh which scored Ramirez and then a two-run bomb (scoring Ramirez) in the ninth off Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon.

White Sox closer Sergio Santos got a 1-2-3 ninth with a strikeout for his ninth save of the season.

Matt Albers (1-3) was charged with the loss after giving up three hits (including Konerko's double). He has come back to Earth after a great start in his Red Sox career.

Some scary stuff too as Rich Hill threw a pitch and then came out with an elbow injury. Dice-K is going to be out for the entire season with Tommy John surgery but nobody cares about that. Hill was a local guy that had found himself this season with Boston. Hope he's OK. Plus, he was the Red Sox' only lefty in the bullpen. Hideki Okajima is in Pawtucket but he has nothing left at this point. Theo Epstein is going to have to get some more reliable bullpen options.

The Red Sox are grateful to have a day off today after going for almost three straight weeks without one (and no, the last three days don't count). The Oakland A's come to town this weekend for a three-game set.

Red Sox honor the troops and veterans on Memorial Day by laying down to the White Sox

Boston (30-24) came home last night for the start of a homestand against the Chicago White Sox (25-31) at Fenway Park and they lost again, 7-3.

A two-game losing streak is hardly news in baseball, the streakiest of all sports, but more puzzling was Jon Lester's latest struggles. Lester (7-2) had an seven-game win streak snapped but that was deceiving since he hadn't pitched well in his last few starts but still picked up wins.

Last night, he threw a season-high 127 pitches but only went 5.2 innings, allowing seven earned runs on eight hits with four walks and four strikeouts.

The White Sox were bolstered by Jake Peavy (2-0) who many moons and shoulder surgeries ago used to be one of baseball's best pitchers. The hard drinking, dippin' good old boy went seven innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits with two strikeouts.

Chicago loaded the bases in the first inning and A.J. Pierzynski (2 hits) came through with a two-run single up the middle.

Boston got a run back in the first as Adrian Gonzalez (2 hits) crushed his tenth homer of the season, a solo shot into the Red Sox bullpen.

Providence, RI native Paul Konerko (2 hits) smacked a solo homer over the Monster in the third for a 3-1 White Sox lead.

Dustin Pedroia tied it up in the third with a two-run single of his own.

That's as close as the Red Sox would get through as Alexei Ramirez (2 hits) knocked Lester out of the game with a bloop two-run double in the sixth. The next batter, Carlos Quentin, added a two-run single off Dan Wheeler and that was it.

Alfredo Aceves goes for his third straight solid start tonight as he takes on Phil Humber.

I guess a sweep over the White Sox was wishful thinking

After beating the White Sox Friday and Saturday, the Red Sox went for the sweep yesterday afternoon at Fenway.

Chicago (77-59) grabbed the win, 4-2, as their offense finally woke up a little bit after being held to two runs over the first two games.

The Red Sox (79-57) had eight hits and five walks but they left 18 guys on base which is never a recipe for success.

Tim Wakefield (8-9) went six innings, giving up three runs on six hits with three strikeouts. Despite the loss, Wakefield looked much better in this start than in his first one back from the DL-earlier in the week against the Yankees.

Make no mistake about it, the White Sox are a quality team. They have a bunch of sluggers, a deep pitching rotation and a decent bullpen, highlighted by a top closer. However, their reliance on the long ball might be their undoing in the playoffs (should they hold off the Twins or take the Wild Card).

Gavin Floyd improved to 15-6 by scattering one run and seven hits over 6.2 innings. He walked two and struck out five.

Jim Thome (2 runs, 2 hits, 2 RBIs) hit a two-run homer in the first that wrapped around Pesky's Pole in right and scored Carlos Quentin.

Boston cut the lead in half in the fourth as Jacoby Ellsbury (3 hits, RBI, walk, 2 steals) singled in Jeff Bailey.

Paul Konerko's RBI double in the sixth made it 3-1 Chicago before Joe Crede extended the lead to 4-1 in the ninth with an RBI double.

The Red Sox made some noise in the ninth, scoring a run off White Sox closer Bobby Jenks. With Ellsbury on third, David Ortiz walked, Coco Crisp pinch ran and stole second so Boston had red-hot Dustin Pedroia coming up with two outs, representing the winning run. Pedroia popped up to shallow left on a low slider and Jenks recorded his 27th save.

Taking two out of three was a fine result for the Red Sox who continue to shuffle pitchers and the lineup due to various injuries/illnesses. Pedroia went 4 for 4 in each of the first two games and he currently leads the AL in batting average (.326). It's time to start taking the guy seriously as a MVP candidate; the AL race seems pretty wide open between him, Quentin, Josh Hamilton, Kevin Youkilis, etc.

Baltimore comes to Fenway tonight for three games.