Ortiz bombs get Red Sox off to a good start in Disneyland

Last night in Anaheim, Clay Buchholz was back to his All-Star form and David Ortiz looked like the guy who won the 2010 Home Run Derby.

Buchholz (11-5) went seven innings, allowing one run on five hits with a walk and seven strikeouts and Ortiz hit two home runs as Boston (56-44) won 6-3 against the Los Angeles Angels (52-50).

Dan Haren's Angels debut was a dud as he had to leave in the fifth after Kevin Youkilis' (3 hits, stolen base) line drive went off his arm. He left the game with a contusion. Haren went 4.2 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.

Bobby Abreu put LA up 1-0 in the first with a solo homer.

In his first game back in almost a month, Victor Martinez tied it up with an RBI single in the second inning.

Ortiz put his team in front with a solo homer in the third and then a clutch two-run shot in the eighth.

The 4-1 cushion came in handy as Scott Atchison served up a two-run bomb to Hideki Matsui (2 hits) in the eighth.

Jonathan Papelbon got the final four outs for his 23rd save of the season.

John Lackey makes his return to Angel Stadium of Anaheim tonight, facing Jered Weaver, who's leading the AL in strikeouts and is having a great season even though he somehow wasn't in the All-Star game in his home park.

Okajima lets his stinkbomb speak for itself

Just when it appeared the Red Sox were gaining a sliver of momentum, winning the first two games in Seattle, it all came crashing down as they couldn't pull out a win in Lester's gem on Saturday night and yesterday afternoon the bullpen imploded for the millionth time this season.

Seattle (39-60) won 4-2, to earn a split in a series that Boston (55-44) simply had to have. Now, the Sox are eight games behind New York (goodnight) and five behind Tampa Bay for the wild card (keep dreaming). Ugh.

Yesterday's goat was Hideki Okajima (3-3), who had another terrible outing in a terrible season for him that's been chock full of them.

Dice-K had given his team the standard six inning outing: four hits, one run (earned), five walks, four strikeouts. Typical with Matsuzaka, he pitched out of trouble well (including a bases loaded, one out jam) but his high pitch count (110) cost his team since someone other than Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon had to enter the game.

Okajima entered with no outs and a runner on first in the eighth and promptly gave up five hits for two runs (both earned). You have to believe me that none of the balls were hard hit, two were bunt hits, but that doesn't matter at all. He compounded things by screwing up one of the bunts, he fielded Casey Kotchman's (3 hits) bunt, turned to third, hesitated then threw to first. Everybody was safe.

Jose Lopez (2 hits) gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead in the third with an RBI single.

Kevin Youkilis (2 hits) tied it up for Boston with an RBI double in the fourth and ex-Mariner Adrian Beltre put the Red Sox ahead with an RBI single.

In the fateful eighth, Michael Saunders drove in two with a bloop single and Kotchman scored on Milton Bradley's bunt.

David Aardsma, another ex-Red Sox player, got a 1-2-3 ninth for his 18th save.

After a 3-4 stretch in Oakland and Seattle, the Sox wrap up their west coast trip with three in Anaheim against the Angels. Clay Buchholz takes on Joel Pineiro, former Sox bum.

Lester strikes out 13 but it's not enough as Sox lose to Mariners 5-1

This is not an excuse but when you have a ton of injuries and a shitty bullpen not to mention a fraud lineup, you're susceptible to crazy games such as Thursday night at Safeco Field and last night.

In both cases, Red Sox starting pitchers carried no-hitters deep into the game and yet that didn't matter. Boston (55-43) was lucky to pull it out in 13 innings on Thursday but luck wasn't on their side last night as Jon Lester struck out a career-high 13 but that wasn't enough as the Mariners (38-60) won 5-1.

Lester (11-5) actually had a perfect game going until the sixth when Eric Patterson dropped a routine fly ball by Jack Wilson. Obviously, the next batter Michael Saunders crushed a two-run homer that the Sox never could recover from.

In the eighth, Milton Bradley tripled and then Wilson knocked him in with a suicide squeeze. When Chone Figgins decided to stop fighting his manager Don Wakamatsu and hit an RBI double, you had to know it was over. Manny Delcarmen made sure there would be no comeback as he hit Jose Lopez with the bases loaded for the Mariners' last run.

When all the damage was done, Lester went 7.2 innings and allowed four hits, five runs (four earned), one walk with 13 strikeouts.

Former Sox spot starter David Pauley has resurfaced in Seattle and he held his own against one of the game's best: 5.2 innings, five hits, one run (earned), one walk, five strikeouts.

Boston's only run came in the fourth on David Ortiz's 19th home run of the season.

The Red Sox turn to Dice-K this afternoon as they try to take the series from the Mariners. Seattle counters with lefty Doug Fister.

Lackey nearly throws no-hitter, Sox almost suffer worst loss in years but end up winning in 13 innings

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Friday, July 23, 2010
Lackey nearly throws no-hitter, Sox almost suffer worst loss in years but end up winning in 13 innings


To nobody's surprise, John Lackey has largely been a disappointment for the Boston Red Sox so far this season.

Last night though, he was on and he nearly threw a no-hitter. Lackey went 7.2 innings before giving up a hit and left with a 6-1 lead after eight innings (2 hits, 1 walk, 6 strikeouts). Game over right? Not so much with this car crash version of the Sox.

Boston (54-42) gave up five runs in the ninth to the awful Mariners (37-59) but somehow recovered to win 8-6 in 13 innings after Safeco Field thanks to Eric Patterson's two-run double.

Milton Bradley had walked, stolen second base, moved over on a grounder then scored in the second on a passed ball so Seattle had a 1-0 lead without a hit. It was crazy that they almost got no-hit after that.

Bill Hall gave Boston a 2-1 lead in the third with a two-run homer and David Ortiz (2 hits) drove in Marco Scutaro (2 hits, 2 RBIs) with an RBI single.

J.D. Drew added to the Red Sox tally with a two-run bomb in the sixth and Scutaro notched a solo shot in the seventh.

Manny Delcarmen completely melted down in the ninth against Seattle's pathetic lineup. Delcarmen gave up four runs (three earned), two hits and a walk; he didn't record an out.

Franklin Gutierrez cut it to 6-3 with a two-run homer and Casey Kotchman notched an RBI double. Jack Wilson grounded into a fielder's choice, allowing Bradley to score but then Hall threw away the relay to first and the tying run scored. With that, Jonathan Papelbon blew the save.

Hideki Okajima (3-2) pitched his best game of the year, getting two scoreless innings in the 11th and 12th, including wiggling out of a bases-loaded, one out jam in the 12th.

Ramon Ramirez pitched a clean 13th, with a strikeout to get his second save of the season.

So this game went from a revelation from Lackey, to the worst loss in years and then finally, an incredible win when it looked over.

Josh Beckett returns tonight and faces Jason Vargas, a quality lefty.

Will the Red Sox be toast by the trade deadline?

If you've learned anything from fantasy baseball (and hopefully I have since I currently run an obnoxious five teams), it's that when a starting pitcher returns, it always takes him at least a few starts to find his form. I don't know why hitters can seemingly adjust faster but Clay Buchholz proved this point once again yesterday afternoon.

He was at the top of his game on June 26 when he left a game in San Francisco with a strained hamstring (running the bases, don't get me started with the JV NL rules).

The Sox (53-42) desperately needed a win from him and a series victory over Oakland (48-47) but he couldn't deliver as the A's won 6-4 to take two out of the three from the free-falling Sox.

You can't blame Buchholz (10-5) for his sub par performance: 4 innings, 6 hits, 5 earned runs, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts.

The A's have won seven of eight and they were able to scratch away despite an average start by Gio Gonzalez (9-6): 6 innings, 7 hits, 4 runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts.

Adrian Beltre (3 hits, 3 RBIs, run, stolen base) continued to show why he's been the Sox MVP, keeping their patchwork lineup intact during all the lineup shuffling.

Shortstop Jed Lowrie (2 walks, hit, run, RBI) made his 2010 debut for Boston and he played well. To say the guy has been cursed with injuries and other problems (mono) would be an understatement. Hopefully he can stay healthy and get his career back on track.

Beltre gave the Red Sox a 1-0 lead in the first with an RBI single which knocked in Lowrie.

Buchholz had only given up three runs this season coming into yesterday but Matt Watson hit a solo shot in the second to tie it up then Jack Cust put Oakland ahead 3-1 in the third with a two-run bomb that scored Kurt Suzuki (2 hits, 2 runs).

Lowrie cut it to 3-2 A's in the fifth with an RBI single but Oakland added three in the home half of the inning. Mark Ellis had an RBI single and Rajai Davis knocked in two with his two-run single.

Beltre closed out the scoring with a two-run blast in the sixth.

Michael Wuertz had a 1-2-3 ninth with a strikeout for his second save of the season.

Rumors are swirling about who the Red Sox are trying to acquire: Jayson Werth, David DeJesus, Chris Snyder, relievers. Theo Epstein has to go for it now or else he can raise the white flag ala 2006 and admit this season is going nowhere fast.

Boston begins a four-game series at Safeco Field in Seattle tonight. The Mariners are one of the worst teams in baseball so realistically the Red Sox need to win at least three of these games even though it seems like they always struggle in the Pacific Northwest. The good news is that they miss King Felix who pitched last night.

John Lackey opposes Ryan Rowland-Smith tonight at 10:10 p.m. EST.

Sox miss out on a chance to gain a game on Yankees and Rays

With the team in a tailspin lately, the Red Sox finally seemed to be receiving some good luck after their win in Oakland on Monday night not to mention Clay Buchholz (Wednesday) and Josh Beckett (Friday) are scheduled to return to the mound for the big club this week.

All those good things were overshadowed by a bitter loss last night, 5-4 to the A's in 10 innings at the Oakland Coliseum.

Boston had 12 hits to Oakland's (47-47) but that didn't matter when Kevin Kouzmanoff singled home Daric Barton off Michael Bowden for the winning run.

The Yankees got blown out by the Angels earlier in the night and the Rays ended up losing in extra innings to the Orioles, two gifts that the Red Sox (53-41) were not able to take advantage of.

In likely his last start for a while, Tim Wakefield (6 innings, 3 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned runs, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts) pitched decently but couldn't hold onto a 4-0 lead.

Kevin Youkilis gave Boston a 1-0 lead in the first with an RBI double off Dallas Braden (4.2 innings, 10 hits, 4 runs, 1 earned, 1 walk, 6 strikeouts), Marco Scutaro (2 hits, 2 runs) scored on the play but David Ortiz was thrown out at home. The Sox looked about to run away with it in the second as they added three more runs.

Bill Hall had an RBI single, Scutaro drove him in with a double and he scored on Darnell McDonald's (2 hits) RBI double.

The A's got it all back in the third as two scored on Jack Cust's double, Kurt Suzuki scored on a passed ball and Kouzmanoff drove in Cust with a sacrifice fly.

Bowden inherited Ramon Ramirez's (0-3) mess, it wasn't his fault Boston lost. Ramirez walked two, gave up a hit and was charged with the winning run.

Andrew Bailey (1-3) threw two scoreless innings for the win as Oakland's bullpen was just a hair better than Boston's.

Buchholz faces Gio Gonzalez this afternoon in the series finale. The Red Sox need a good start from Buchholz and a win to give them some juice heading into Seattle.

Teach me how to dougie Dice-K

What do I always say about Dice-K? He is the single most unpredictable player in MLB and probably professional sports. Therefore after I bashed him and Ben Sheets going into last night's series opener in Oakland, they responded by turning in a classic pitcher's duel.

It figures that one of the most exciting games of the season was a 10:05 p.m. EST start so who knows how much of Red Sox nation actually saw it, especially considering how low their television ratings are this season.

The Red Sox (53-40) started off the pivotal 10-game West Coast trip with a 2-1 win at the Oakland Coliseum. Dice-K (7-3) went 6.2 innings and allowed one earned run on two hits with two walks and six strikeouts. Most surprisingly, Dice-K worked quickly and efficiently and was only on 89 pitches when he got yanked in the seventh.

Ben Sheets (4-9) nearly matched him going 6.2 innings and giving up two earned runs on seven hits with two walks and two strikeouts.

Daniel Bard went 1.1 scoreless innings and Jonathan Papelbon got a 1-2-3 ninth for his 21st save of the season. Dice-K's fine work allowed Terry Francona to skip over all the bum relievers that have been omnipresent this season.

Rajai Davis gave Oakland (46-47) a 1-0 lead in the third with a solo home run.

David Ortiz tied it up in the fourth when his sacrifice fly knocked in former A's outfielder Eric Patterson, who had tripled. Adrian Beltre (3 hits) produced the winning run with a solo shot two batters later.

In his last start before Josh Beckett returns to the rotation, Tim Wakefield goes tonight against Dallas Braden, he of the perfect game on May 9. Braden has been on the DL and also has struggled since then, he hasn't won a game since then.