Sox on mend, rebound after break

Ty Hampton
Sox Swagger

BOSTON – Well they're a bit bruised, a bit beat up, but they aint broken. The Sox made it to the All-Star break with 9 players on the disabled list and Kevin Youkilis and Adrian Beltre nursing minor injuries but playing – a scary condition for a team to be in regardless of whether you're only a few games back of the Yankees in the pennant race or not.

David "Big Papi" Ortiz had a nice all-star break, running away with the home run derby title on his 3rd try -- again silencing the critics who said he was washed up at April's end.

But other than that the Sox got back to biz as usual after the break, banged up and battling. Things got a little worse before they could get better with a pair of tough series with the red-hot AL-West leading Rangers and the mildly streaky A's getting the best of the Sox, dropping them to as bad as 7.5 games back in the AL East headed into a 4-game set in Seattle kicking off Thursday night.

We saw the Sox really bare down and fight Thursday, after the M's tied the game with 2 homers in the 9th inning off Delcarmen and Papelbon, the bullpen had to string together a couple crucial innings for for a 13th inning 8-6 win. Okajima got the win for his 12th and 13th inning holds he put on the Mariners lineup.

Then Friday night everybody was tuning in to see how Josh Beckett perform in his first start since nearly 2 months of recovery. Beck really looked to be in top form, striking out 5 and walking 3 over 5-2/3 innings in a 2-1 victory. Pap got the save (22) to cap off a great night put together by the pen.

Josh threw 98 pitches, 62 for strikes -- and that's a sigh of relief to the Sox organization. Beck has something to prove now and some work to do with his 1-1 6.66 ERA in 2010, but as history has proven, this dude is clutch down the stretch and that's why he's their ace.

Even better the Sox got back Clay Bucholz this week as well. He had a rocky start in Oakland, but he's been carrying the team as of late and the hamstring injury shouldn't affect his game in the oh-so crucial months of July and August.

Other news on injuries is that Victor Martinez might be back in the lineup after recovering from his foot injury as soon as Monday and outfielder Jeremy Hermida will most likely see time with the Sox next week as well. There is still no timetable for Ellsbury's return to the bigs, still recovering from his mid-April collision with Beltre that brokes several ribs.

Pedroia is feeling antsy to come back and get in the action, but has only just begun walking through light drills without the boot so he will most likely be a mid-August return.

With the Sox needing a sweep in this Seattle series, 7 games back in the East, they put the prolific 11-4, 2.81 ERA Jon Lester on the mound against the Mariners' David Pauley.

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Sox take 2 from O’s, head to Tampa

Ty Hampton
Sox Swagger

BOSTON – After taking 2-of-3 from the Orioles at Fenway this weekend, the Sox head to Tampa Bay tonight with a ½ game lead over the Rays and 1-1/2 games back of the AL East-leading Yankees.

It may only be the midway point of the season but every game against the Rays counts big time and don’t think twice about the Sox wanting to glide into the All-Star break next weekend either in 1st or 2nd place in the East standings. By the same virtue, every game counts right now, even if it’s the Orioles. Matter of fact, especially if it’s the Orioles – they’re by far the worst team in baseball right now and there’s no excuse for the Sox’s 6-1 home loss on Independence Day.

On Saturday the Sox took care of business, Jon Lester (10-3, 2.76 ERA) continuing to post a perfect 12-0 record against the boys from Baltimore. The hot lefty – who just got his first All-Star team nod – threw a solid 7 innings and increased his flawless experience with the Orioles by improving his ERA to 2.00 over his 15 career starts against them.

The Sox jumped on Jeremy Guthrie early and often in the 9-3 victory, putting 4 runs up on the board in the 1st inning alone off of doubles from Youkilis, J.D. Drew and Daniel Nava. Ortiz also later doubled and Youk put 2 more on the board with a 2-run blast to left over the Green Monster.

Sunday’s game lacked all the energy and momentum the Sox seemed to be filled to the brim with the day before, as John Lackey again had one of those days where he runs into a middle inning breakdown, giving up 5 runs in the 4th inning. The Sox never could get the bats going against Baltimore’s Matusz who had a good day on the mound. Youkilis went deep for a solo that would be Boston’s only run of the night.

Tonight’s Matchup:
I hope my boys from Boston were just saving up their juice for Tampa, because this is a pivotal series coming up tonight. Some may say ‘Ty, but it’s only July, it’s the all-star break for crimeny’ – I say ‘nay!’ The shape in which a team goes into and comes out of the break is a factor (even more so in the AL East), and anyone who doesn’t think so is delusional.

Dice-K (5-3, 4.5 ERA) will be looking for a bit of redemption tonight against the Rays, facing off against their ace Matt Garza (9-5, 4.08 ERA).

The Sox also will have to go through the Rays series and their finale with the Jays before the break without Clay Bucholz (10-4, 2.45 ERA), who team officials are being cautious with his sore hamstring – doing all you can do for the injury…and that’s give it rest.

AL East
New York 50-31 --
Boston 49-33 1.5
Tampa Bay 48-33 2.0

Kevin Youkilis Shaves Off His Goatee

Nooooooooooo....just like you dont mess with Samson's hair in the Bible, in the same fashion you do NOT touch the viking lord's goatee!!!

I hope that was for charity Youk, cuz you just lost 1/2 your strength!

Check out this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEji3x_mjk8
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How can this guy not be an All-Star?

Kevin Youkilis the philosopher as guest on tv show "Narrow World of Sports"

Check out this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY_xEjuLMAk
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Boston bruised up but fighting entering July

Sox backups picking up slack in big way

Ty Hampton
Sox Swagger

BOSTON -- Well the past week has been nothing short of hellacious for the Red Sox in the way of injuries. That said, the Sox are playing with mostly their B-squad and have pulled within a half-game of the Yankees for the AL East lead through Friday.

How is this possible? It appears that the boys from Boston are destined to face more than their fair share of adversity this season, but is there really a better team than the Red Sox who are more battle-tested and apt to overcome such hurdles? Me thinks not.

The Sox had seen their share of troubles with injuries this season with Josh Beckett, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jeremy Hermida and Mike Lowell paying extensive visits on the DL before the BoSox pulled into SanFran last Saturday afternoon. Then all hell broke lose.

A night after Dustin Pedroia – the team's unquestionable fire and leader these days – blasted 3 homers to best the Rockies in Denver, the power-hitting little man fouled a ball off himself in his first at-bat in San Francisco, fracturing his foot and placing him on the DL for up to 6 weeks.

The next night in SanFran young Sox ace Clay Bucholz got his first major league hit and of course went down on the base paths attempting to reach second base. First diagnosed as a hyper-extended knee, the injury was later called a pulled hamstring. Luckily it appears the hammy shouldn't keep Clay out too long.

Lightning evidently strikes not just twice, but 3 times when in SanFran, as the last game of the series Victor Martinez went down with, what else, but a fracture foot after a batter fouled a tipped pitch off his foot while behind the dish. Despite this, the Sox beat-up Timmy Lincecum that night and took their 2nd win of the 3 game series – banged up, but still winning.

Then the Sox headed back home for a 2-game set with their wild-card rival, those pesky Rays. The Boston Bombers split the series, with Big Papi and company rocking pitcher James Shields in the first outing. But the bad news didn't stay in the San Francisco bay, but followed them all the way back to the Boston harbor. On Thursday the Sox got news that Jason Varitek had also, indeed, broken his foot and would be placed on the DL long term.

Luckily former Boston back-up catcher Kevin Cash was not being utilized in the Astros system and available to be dealt to the Sox for next to nothing. This move made Thursday night was ever-so-key, as a veteran catcher behind the plate who knows the Sox pitching staff will increase Boston's rotations' chances of staying on track and continuing to propel the entire program towards the dominant breed of baseball they've been playing over the past 2 months.

In June, the Sox went 18-9 and hurled themselves right back into the race for first, something their critics had all but counted them out of after a horrific April. The way they've done it is perhaps the scariest, playing great defense with impressive top-shelf pitching and more hitting than they ever counted on – all this of course while the team has been missing pieces due to injuries from the get-go. If they ever get a healthy lineup together by October – that prospect is perhaps the scariest idea of all.

For the meantime though, the Sox are going to have to really hunker down and battle through July with several players missing a majority of, if not the entire, month. There are currently 9 players on the DL, 5 put their in the past week (3 of which were starters).

Here are some of the recently activated players that you may not have heard of that will have their names on the roster undoubtedly through much of July:
- Robert Manuel, 26, righty in pen to replace injured Manny Delcarmen
- Dustin Richardson, 26, lefty in pen taking Wake's spot as he's now a starter again
- Gustavo Molina, 28, Venezuelan backstop to back-up Kevin Cash
- Eric Patterson, 27, 2B/outfielder
- Niuman Romero, 25, Venezuelan 2B vying for Pedie's back-up job

Now players like Darnell McDonald, Bill Hall and Daniel Nava have been activated for some time now as back-ups who have seen plenty of playing time with the pre-existing injuries prior to last week's black plague. Their roles will be ever more important now.

The 30-year-old Hall is a true utility player having spent time in the infield and outfield at both Seattle and Milwaukie before landing in Boston this season. He has filled in nicely for Pedroia at second but now may be spending time in the outfield if Cameron also can't stay healthy (was scratched from lineup before Friday night's game with the same nagging abdominal strain that has bothered him all season).

Daniel Nava came up big Friday night against the O's, coming in to pinch-hit for Eric Patterson in the 8th inning in a 2-2 ballgame. The youngster drove in the winning run on a bloop single that brought in Scoots from 2nd – Nava's first ever major league pinch-hit at-bat…not bad, not bad.

Nava's game-winning clutch RBI helped the Sox get a necessary home win against the terrible Orioles to pull within a 1/2 –game of the Yankees, but it was only the winner because of J.D. Drew's 2 big solo homers hit in the 2nd and 5th innings.

Tim Wakefield got a much-needed 1st home win of the year Friday, moving to 3-6 with a 4.96 ERA. Wake threw for 7 hits and 2 runs over 8 innings, a solid outing from the aging knuckler.

J.D. has been a godsend to this lineup as of late. Commonly criticized for his paycheck in comparison to the portion of time he has spent on the DL almost every season – Drew has been consistently healthy in 2010. He has hit 3 homers in his last 4 starts, and is batting .353 with 5 dingers over the last 13 games.

Saturday night Jon Lester (9-3) will be handed the ball, attempting to go 12-0 lifetime against the Orioles in a showdown with Jeremy Guthrie (3-9). If he accomplishes this feat, it will also make the Sox 12-4 over the past 16 games – a hot streak if I've ever heard of one.

AL Wild Card Race:
Yankees 48-31 -- Red Sox 48-32 ½
Rays 46-33 2

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Pedroia blasts 3 homers to outlast Rocks

Late game heroics made Rockies series a great one

Ty Hampton
Sox Swagger

-- This interleague series between the Sox and Rocks has been, without a doubt, the most heated, competitively fueled and October-esque series of the season to date.

In game 1 the Sox and Rocks found themselves in a pitchers' duel between Lester and Chacin in the first Denver meeting between the 2 clubs since Lester closed out the 2007 World Series sweep at Coors Field. Chacin prevailed in a 2-1 near perfect effort.

Game 2 was a different animal altogether. The Rockies took it 8-6, but it wasn't without a considerable fight.

The Red Sox took a 6-5 lead after pitcher John Lackey doubled in a run and was himslef driven in on a Scutaro bloop single. The Sox had to feel pretty good about putting 6 runs up on the red-hot Ubaldo Jimenez--boosting his 1.15 ERA to 1.6.

Daniel Bard came in for the 8th and shutdown the rallying Rockies with some 99 mph heat and a curve that was working like never before -- scary! But then Jon Papelbon took the mound in the bottom of the 9th and did something he rarely does -- badly blow a save.

Ian Stewart drilled a game-tying solo shot into the 1st deck with 1 out in the 9th.

Then ex-nemesis Jason Giambi stepped to the dish with 1 on and blasted a moon-shot off of the lights hanging above Coors Field's upper deck. The balled flew off into the mile-high night sky as the purpe faithful rejoiced and Papelbon's head hung low with doom overcasting the prolific Sox closer's face.

If the walk-off blown save homerun wasn't bad enough for Paps, it had to be a former Yankee besting him that got to the big guy the worst.

But, as they say, the show must go on. The series finale was a lot like game 2, except Dustin Pedroia refused to lose and give up the sweep.

Pedie had homered twice earlier in the 11-11 slugfest that was sent to extra inning after Papelbon again gave up a 2-run homerun to Todd Helton to tie it up. Pedie blasted his 3rd homer of the night (12th of year) off Huston Street for a 13-11 lead and the Rockies were denied their sweep.

The Sox are now 44-30 and tied with the Rays for 2nd in the AL East, 2 games back of the Yankees.

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Leave it to a former Yankee

Sox lose tight duel with Rocks

Ty Hampton
Sox Swagger

-- A pitchers duel has usually gone Boston's way this season when Lester's taken the mound, but the Sox ran into a force to be reckoned with on Tuesday as they met the Rockies for the first time in 2010 and quickly found this young team is stacked in the pitching category, falling 2-1 in Denver.

**SPOILER ALERT: In fact I would put a heavy wager on the Rocks beating the Phils in the playoffs to meet the chosen winner of the AL East in the World Series this year. Can anybody say rematch?**

Jhoulys Chacin was the man on the mound Tuesday for the Rocks, hurling 6-2/3 innings of shutout baseball. Things should be interesting Wednesday as the Sox's league-leading bats faceoff against the near perfect Ubaldo Jimenez with a 1.15 ERA.

The Sox had a couple of opportunities with the bases loaded, one with Ortiz and another with V-Mart, both leading to easy rally-killing ground-outs.

The aging all-star veteran Todd Helton had the crucial, go-ahead RBI single that made all the difference.

Wednesday's Matchup: John Lackey (8-3, 4.53 ERA) vs Ubaldo Jimenez (13-1, 1.15 ERA)

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Catchin' up with those red-hot Sox

-- Many apologies to the Nation, I've been slackin on my posts for nearly 2 weeks now due to the NBA Finals, my b-day happenings and a tornado that touched down near our part of town--still,no excuses...back to baseball.

Since I posted last, the Sox have gone on an extraordinary interleague tear and closed the gap in the AL East, now tied with the Rays in 2nd at 1.5 games back from the Yankees. Boston took 2 of 3 from the Phils for the 2nd time this season and followed that great effort up with 3-game sweeps of the the D-Backs & Dodgers (sorry Manny, that's what you get for leaving town the way you did, ya prick!)

In June Big Papi and Adrian Beltre have continued to swing the bat like their old selves, we saw heroics from Daniel Nava who was brought up from AAA and blasted a grand slam on his first pitch he saw in the majors, and a walk-off double from a resurgent Dustin Pedroia propeled the Sox to a Dodgers sweep and a game back in the division.

To say the least the Sox are red-hot as they pull into Colorado for the last week of the interleague season and it appears Boston is in the hunt for 1st as the season's midpoint approaches.

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Sox continue to slam Phils pitchers

Ty Hampton
Sox Swagger

After splitting a 4-game series with the lowly Indians, the Sox came out firing against the great Jamie Moyer and the Phillies in and overpowering 12-2 interleague win at Fenway on Friday night.

Moyer got rocked over 1+ inning as Boston put up 9 runs on the board on 9 hits. In the first 2 innings the Sox got doubles from Victor Martinez(2), David Ortiz(2), Adrian Beltre and Dustin Pedroia on top of a Scutaro single and a 2-run blast from Mike Lowell – who was giving Youk (back spasms) the night off at firstbase.

Basically this one was over before it started, with the Sox bats rockin' from the get-go and John Lackey turning in a clean performance for the easy win. Substitutes from both squads were reportedly called into the game as early as the 4th to give the starters a rest for today's day game.

However Lackey (7-3, 4.54 ERA) persevered through the 7th inning for 6 hits, 2 runs, 3 K's and no walks – the best performance he has had in his last 3 showings.

Red Sox Record: (36-27, 4 games back from 1st place Rays)
Saturday's Matchup: Dice-K vs. Joe Blanton

Yay's:
- Dustin Pedroia had an MRI on his knee on Thursday and checked out all the way around. Pedey said soreness in the knee had been hindering him on the base paths in May and the team took the right precautions to make sure their standout 2-bagger, team leader and mighty mouse slugger would not have to undergo the knife with a looming injury.

Pedey was given the full go ahead and actually placed back in the lineup Friday night.

- After coming off a rough road trip in Cleveland, Big Papi snapped out of a 1-for-27 slump and went 3-5 with 2 doubles, 2 runs and 4 RBIs.

Nay's:
- It appears Jeremy Hermida is going to miss time also after last week's collision, having been placed on the 15-day DL to rest and take a closer look at some bruised ribs that he incurred in a collision with Beltre in early June. Sound familiar? Starting left-fielder Jacoby Ellsbury is still out with no return date set after colliding with Beltre on a sliding catch in April that created a hairline fracture across 4 of his ribs.

Pretty disconcerting stuff as Hermida had stepped up and helped the Sox with his bats in May with Ells and Mike Cameron missing time and the Boston outfielder options now dwindling. The positive side? Beltre is the hottest of the 3 players involved in these collisions and hasn't appeared to have any effects, slugging like a true all-star leading the Sox in hitting in 2010.

- Youkilis' back spasms that caused him to miss action Friday appear to minor in nature and he just needed a night off to recover, but with Ellsbury, Hermida, Cameron and Beckett out and V-Mart playing with a nagging toe injury – the last thing we need right now is for Kevin Youkilis to be on the DL.

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Lester a perfect 11-0 vs. O’s

Ty Hampton
Sox Swagger

BALTIMORE -- To say that Jon Lester has the Orioles’ number doesn’t quite do it justice, as the Boston lefty improved to 11-0 lifetime against Baltimore.

Over 6-1/3 innings Saturday, Lester gave up 4 hits and 3 walks for 2 runs with 4 K’s in an 8-2 Boston win. He couldn’t have done it alone though, with plenty of aid from the Sox bats, stellar defense in the field and a clutch pickup performance by setup man Daniel Bard.

Bard came in with an out in the 7th with bases loaded and got two flyball outs to get out of the jam. It should be noted that Bard is really in top form right now, coming into games hurling 99 mph heat with 91 mph changeups – that’s scorching and deadly stuff.

The real difference maker on the offensive end was Kevin Youkilis, who went 3-for-5 with a homer and 2 doubles. This on his first night of the year starting at third base – man this guy is adaptable to about any circumstances. Gotta loveYouk.

Red Sox Record: (33-24)
Sunday’s Matchup: John Lackey vs. David Hernandez

Yay’s:
- The team is saying that even though Beltre sat out Saturday’s game, it was just a day off for rest – not due to any injury incurred in his scary collision with Jeremy Hermida Friday night. Sounds like Hermida and Beltre are both cleared to remain playing with no significant injuries, just bruises.

Nay’s:
- (nothing to report today – it’s the Orioles though)