Red Sox Win Their Fourth Straight, 7-2 Over Indians In First Game After Marathon Bombings

The Red Sox will lose plenty of games this season but it was nice that they could do their very small part to bring some smiles to a stunned region tonight. Since the Bruins' game was postponed last night and the Celtics' game tonight was cancelled, the Red Sox had the honor of being the first Boston team to play after the bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Boston (9-4 overall, 5-2 away) opened up a three-game set at nearly empty Progressive Field with a 7-2 win over Terry Francona's Indians (5-7 overall, 2-4 home). It was their fourth straight win after sweeping Tampa Bay. The game took 3:30 but really the second inning was all that mattered. Ubaldo Jimenez (0-2) couldn't get out of it as the Red Sox batted around and scored all seven of their runs. Part of the reason it took so long was that Boston struck out 16 times and walked nine times.

Felix Doubront (1-0) was the lucky recipient of the offensive explosion/Jimenez's meltdown. He had his usual five inning outing with two earned runs on four hits, seven strikeouts and four walks on 104 pitches.

David Ross walked with the bases loaded to start the onslaught in the second. Pedro Ciriaco hit a sacrifice fly then Jacoby Ellsbury (run, stolen base) knocked in a run with a single. Dustin Pedroia walked with the bases loaded then Mike Napoli (double, run) cleared the bases with a wall ball double.

Former Red Sox great "Friendly" Mike Aviles provided Cleveland's first run with a sacrifice fly in the second. Their other run came in the fifth on Ross' passed ball. It was a reunion of old Red Sox as Milton, MA native Rich Hill pitched a scoreless eighth for the Indians.

Clayton Mortensen and Alex Wilson both had two scoreless innings of relief for Boston.

Good seats are still available if you want to fly out (haha yeah right) to Cleveland tomorrow night (7:05 p.m., NESN) as Justin Masterson (3-0) faces Alfredo Aceves (0-0). Another former Red Sox, Masterson is off to a brilliant start with an ERA of 0.41, 0.82 WHIP and 20 strikeouts in 22 innings.

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The Night The Rays' Playoff Hopes In 2012 Died

Some easy tell-tale signs that a baseball team is on life support or worse in 2012: 1) They lose to the Red Sox, 2) They argue with each other in the dugout and 3) They lose six of seven and score 21 total runs in that miserable span.

Tonight, in the series opener of four games that the Rays (78-69, 39-33 home) absolutely have to win, they fell 5-2 to the Red Sox (67-81, 34-38 away) in a mostly empty and depressing Tropicana Field.

Things had been going so well for Tampa Bay up until a 1-5 road trip last week against the Orioles and Yankees and now they find themselves fading quickly in the playoff hunt: 5.5 games behind New York for 1st place in the AL East and 5 games back of the Orioles for the second wild card spot.

Aaron Cook (4-10) outdueled Alex Cobb (9-9) and after Cobb drilled Jose Iglesias in the back with a pitch, Cobb and his catcher Jose Molina had an animated argument in the dugout. Cook went six innings, allowing one earned run on five hits with one strikeout and one walk. Cobb went six innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on two hits with four strikeouts and three walks.

Jacoby Ellsbury (3 for 5) and Mauro Gomez provided Boston with all the runs they would need. Ellsbury's two-run homer (his 4th of the season, really) made it 2-1 in the sixth and he added an RBI single in the seventh to extend the Red Sox lead to 5-1. Gomez had a pinch-hit two-run single earlier in that frame to open it up.

The Red Sox and Rays both only notched six hits but Tampa Bay couldn't do nearly as much. Boston was 3 for 8 with runners in scoring position, Tampa Bay was 0 for 2. B.J. Upton (3 for 4, run) had half of their hits while Ryan Roberts' ground out in the fifth and Ben Zobrist's ground out in the ninth accounted for their two runs.

For a team that has really overachieved the last few seasons, you wonder when Tampa Bay's front office will realize that they need another big bat to pair with Evan Longoria (out tonight with an injury). All the young talented arms are nice but in October, you need timely hits just as badly. Something to keep an eye on since it looks like the Rays will go home early this season.

Rich Hill (7th) and Junichi Tazawa (8th) both had clean innings with two strikeouts apiece for the Red Sox.

Tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., NESN), Felix Doubront (10-9) faces Jeremy Hellickson (8-10). Expect Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon-one of the best in MLB-to pull out all the stops to try and coax some runs out of his awful lineup and lifeless squad.

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Salty's 1st Career Walk-Off HR Gives Boston A Thrilling 3-2 Win Vs. Tampa Bay

I guess all we can surmise from tonight's final result is that the Boston Red Sox flourish the most when the pressure is not on them, namely in terms of viewing audiences.

Like most, I wasn't watching it live; I actually first noticed it on my stattracker for Yahoo fantasy baseball (on my laptop) and then Twitter but it counts just the same as the Red Sox (23-23, 10-12 home) beat the Rays (28-19, 11-12 away) 3-2 on a walk-off (1st of his career) two-run homer by Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

It was the 10th comeback win for the Red Sox this season, a good sign that they might not be as average as their record suggests.

The pinch-hit bomb to right center (his 8th of the season) put Boston back at .500 (for the fourth time this season) while also causing the first blown save of the season for Rays closer Fernando Rodney (2-1), who had 15 saves in a row to start 2012.

It was a pitcher's duel as Josh Beckett and David Price both performed very well even though neither factored into the final decision. Price went seven innings, allowing one earned run on eight hits with five strikeouts and three walks. Beckett also went seven innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits with five strikeouts and no walks. He had 15 swinging strikes which has to be a season high.

As always, the only thing you can count on this season for Boston is their bullpen and tonight was no exception. Andrew Miller threw a clean eighth with a strikeout then Rich Hill (1-0) pitched a scoreless ninth and ended up getting the win.

The Red Sox broke the deadlock in the sixth on Will Middlebrooks's (2 hits) RBI single. The Rays scored both of their runs in the seventh on Ben Zobrist's sacrifice fly and an RBI single by Luke Scott.

Boston gets its fourth chance (5th if you count Opening Day) to go over .500 tomorrow afternoon (1:35 p.m., NESN) as Clay Buchholz (4-2) takes on Jeremy Hellickson (4-1). It would be a shock if Buchholz is the one to get them there since he's been a complete mess basically all season despite somehow notching four fraudulent wins.

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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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Red Sox Sign Matt Albers, Rich Hill Becomes A Free Agent

Reliever Matt Albers will be back with the Boston Red Sox in 2012 as the team signed him to a one-year deal, avoiding salary arbitration.

The Red Sox also announced that they wouldn't tender a contract to Milton, MA native Rich Hill (coming off Tommy John surgery) so he becomes a free agent. It's too bad that things didn't work out with Hill in Boston. He could have been the lefty reliever the team desperately needed last season and probably this season too but unfortunately he got hurt in June.

To say last season was rocky for Albers, the former Baltimore Oriole, would be fair. Through about July, he was excellent but then like it usually happens with no-name relievers, the roof caved in on him when Boston needed him most in August and September.

Still, he's only 28 and he proved to be effective at times and durable with 56 appearances. Albers was 4-4 with a 4.73 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 10 holds and 68 strikeouts in his first season with the Red Sox. He averaged a career-high 9.46 strikeouts per nine innings which shows he can get it done in the AL East.

Finally, the Red Sox tendered contracts to these arbitration-eligible players: Jacoby Ellsbury, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Alfredo Aceves, Mike Aviles, Daniel Bard, Jed Lowrie and Franklin Morales.

Now go get a closer damn it, preferably named Ryan Madson or Andrew Bailey.

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2011 Boston Red Sox cannot seem to get to the .500 mark to save their lives

It's going to happen eventually, I hope, but for the time being the Boston Red Sox simply cannot get to the .500 mark let alone jump over it.

For the third time in the 2011 season, they had a chance to get to .500 last night but once again, they fell short in a 7-6 loss in 11 innings at the Rogers Centre.

Jon Lester wasn't right from the start, giving up three runs in the first inning but the Red Sox (17-19) battled back to tie it multiple times, including a ninth-inning run off Blue Jays (16-20) closer Frank Francisco.

Lester struggled through 5.1 innings, allowing seven hits, five earned runs with five walks and five strikeouts. He was done after 114 pitches.

The poor pitching by Boston ruined a great night by its bipolar offense. The Red Sox put up a season-high 16 hits led by Adrian Gonzalez (3 hits, 3 RBIs, 2 runs), David Ortiz (3 hits, 2 runs, RBI), Jacoby Ellsbury (3 hits extending his hit streak to 19 games, stolen base), Dustin Pedroia (2 hits, 2 walks, run, stolen base) and J.D. Drew (2 hits).

Rookie Kyle Drabek (5 innings, 8 hits, 4 earned runs, 3 walks, 5 strikeouts) didn't give the Blue Jays much but his bullpen was just a hair better than Boston's.

Carl Crawford (10 game hit streak) cut it to 3-1 in the second with an RBI single. A solo homer by Ortiz (fifth of the season) in the fourth and Gonzalez's two-run blast in the fifth gave the Red Sox a 4-3 advantage.

Jose Bautista and J.P. Arencibia had solo homers in the fifth and sixth respectively to put Toronto back ahead 5-4.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia tied it in the eighth with an RBI single.

Rookie David Cooper hit a solo homer in the eighth off Daniel Bard but Gonzalez came through with the clutch homer in the ninth off Francisco to tie it.

With Matt Albers (0-1) on the mound, Rajai Davis singled in the tenth then stole sceond and third base on him and Jason Varitek. Cooper drove Davis home with a deep sacrifice fly to center.

This mini-series ends tonight with John Lackey opposing Jesse Litsch. You know what that means: I won't be watching much since A) Lackey will be shelled as per usual and the Celtics are facing the Heat while Miami has the chance to close out Boston.