One to forget as the Rays rocked the Red Sox 14-5 on Tuesday night at Fenway Park.  After a promising start to the game – a leadoff single, a walk and a 2-run double by Victor Martinez for a 2-0 lead – David Price buckled down and Daisuke Matsuzaka crumbled in the middle innings as the Rays cruised to the easy victory.

Playoff Watch –

Yankees 6-2 loss to Orioles — 9.0 games lead over Red Sox.

Rays 14-5 win over Red Sox — 7.5 games lead over Red Sox.

The Bad – Daisuke Matsuzaka – 8 ER on 8 hits and 4 walks in 4 2/3 innings.  Dice-K now has a 1.36 WHIP and a 4.70 ERA with a 9-5 record.  Think he’s worth the money now?

The Bad – the Red Sox offense.  The only 2 hits the Red Sox got off of David Price came in the 1st inning.  They got their other 3 runs and 5 hits off of 2 relievers.  They continue to struggle to get things going in 2010 without their injured stars.

The Bad – “Young” relievers Dustin Richardson and Robert Manuel struggled in the blowout.  Richardson did not record a single out in the Rays’ 6-run 5th inning.  He gave up a hit and 2 walks and all 3 runs came around to score.  Manuel gave up Evan Longoria’s 3-run bomb in the 5th inning and then 2 solo home runs in the 6th inning.  Ouch…

Not sure where we go from here.  Tim Wakefield gets the nod tonight against Matt Garza – looks like the Sox have officially conceded the playoff spots to the Yankees and Rays.

The Red Sox “stayed alive” with their 12-5 win over the Rays on Labor Day.  Lester picked up win #16.

Playoff Watch –

Yankees 4-3 loss to Orioles  — 9 games lead over Red Sox.

Rays 12-5 loss to Red Sox — 6.5 games lead over Red Sox.

The Good — Jon Lester – 16 wins, 1.19 WHIP and 3.26 ERA.  Despite what Lester would probably consider a “down” year, he and Clay Buchholz have really given the Red Sox something to be positive about in 2010.  Lester scattered 4 hits and 3 walks over 6 innings in the win.  He gave up just 2 ER and racked up 10 K’s.

The Good — The Red Sox offense — I loved the patience I saw at the plate last night – I cannot remember the last time the Red Sox drew double digit walks (10).  They also had 9 hits in timely situations.  All 12 runs scored via an RBI hit or walk.  David Ortiz hit his 28th home run and had 2 hits and 2 walks with 3 RBI’s.  Adrian Beltre hit his 26th home run and also walked twice.  Ryan Kalish hit his 1st career grand slam and had 1 other hit with 3 runs scored.  Daniel Nava also walked twice and scored twice.

The Bad — In his major league debut, Robert Coello recorded just 1 out, giving up 3 ER on 3 hits and 2 walks.  Let’s hope the 25-year old righty does better in his next outing.

Game 2 features Daisuke Matsuzaka against David Price who is looking for his 17th win on the season.

Ouch — the season is officially over as the White Sox swept the Red Sox in a day-night double header on Saturday at Fenway Park.

Playoff Watch –

Yankees 7-5 win over Blue Jays — 10 games lead over Red Sox.

Rays 8-4 loss to Orioles — 7.5 games lead over Red Sox.

In Game 1 – Clay Buchholz suffered his 6th loss of the season.  He labored through 5 innings – needing a whopping 95 pitches.  He gave up 2 ER on 6 hits and 1 walk, but was definitely off of his game.  Marco Scutaro drove in the lone Red Sox run with an RBI isngle in the 5th inning.  Bill Hall was the only Red Sox player with more than 1 hit.

In Game 2 – John Lackey suffered his 9th loss of the season.  Only 1 of the 3 runs charged against Lackey was earned because of Ryan Kalish’s throwing error in the 7th inning.  Lackey worked 7 strong innings allowing just 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7.  For a 2nd straight game, Marco Scutaro drove in the lone Red Sox run with a single in the 5th inning and Bill Hall was the only Red Sox hitter with more than 1 hit.

Josh Beckett faces Mark Buerhle in the Sunday finale at Fenway Park this afternoon.

Hurricane Earl caused the postponement of Friday night’s game, so we’re all set for a day-night double-header between the Red Sox and White Sox today at Fenway Park.

Game 1 – 1:05PM – John Danks v. Clay Buchholz – tickets for Friday night’s game are good for the 1:05PM start today.

Game 2 – 7:05PM – Gavin Floyd v. John Lackey – this was the regularly scheduled night game.

Playoff Watch –

Yankees 7-3 win over Blue Jays — 8.5 games lead over Red Sox.

Rays 4-1 win over Orioles — 7 games lead over Red Sox.

The Yankees & Rays did not make it easy on the Red Sox as both won on Friday.

The Yankees moved up their start time against the Blue Jays on Friday to avoid the storm and they won 7-3.  The Yankees are currently on a 7-game winning streak and they have won 13 of their last 17 games.

The Rays took care of the O’s in Baltimore with an easy 4-1 win.  They have a 2-game winning streak and they have won 9 of their last 12 games.

Come on Sox – get it done this weekend!!!

The Red Sox “escaped” Baltimore with a series win over the lowly O’s this week.  It wasn’t pretty, but at least they didn’t lose the series.

Playoff Watch –

Yankees 5-0 win overA’s — 8 games lead over Red Sox.

Rays – Idle — 6.5 games lead over Red Sox.

The Good — Adrian Beltre – his solo shot in the 2nd inning started a 5-run rally for the Red Sox.  It was his 25th homer on the season.  The only problem is that he is the only Red Sox starter with a batting average over .300.

The Good (last night) — J.D. Drew had 3 hits, but is still just hitting .257 on the season.  He has a .347 on-base percentage (well below his .388 career average) and he has only 18 HR’s, 60 RBI’s and 61 runs scored.  Mike Lowell had 2 hits, 1 RBI and 1 run scored, but is only hitting .241 on the season.

The Good — Daisuke Matsuzaka looked great until he got into the 6th inning.  He had pitched 5 scoreless innings before he ran out of steam in the 6th. Overall, he tossed 94 pitches, giving up 4 ER on 6 hits and 1 walk.  He also had 6 K’s.

The Good — Scott Atchison — what a night.  He got Daisuke out of his jam in the 6th inning to preserve the 1-run lead, and then retired the next 5 batters he faced to get the game into the bottom of the 8th inning.  The veteran has really proved to be a life saver in the pen for the Red Sox this season with his 1.22 WHIP and 3.97 ERA.

The Good — Hideki Okajima retired the only batter that he faced in is 2nd appearance since returning from the disabled list.

The Good — Jonathan Papelbon – 35 saves and counting.  He made it interesting by giving up 2 hits in the 9th, but he still has a remarkable 1.09 WHIP and 2.81 ERA.

Now it’s time to welcome Manny Ramirez back to Fenway Park for a 2nd time this season.  Clay Buchholz will look to notch his 16th win on the season and continue to make the AL Cy Young debate a 3-man race with the Yankees’ CC Sabathia and the Rays’ David Price.  He and the Red Sox will face nasty lefty John Danks (12 wins and 3.65 ERA in 2010).  Should be a fun series to watch all weekend long.

Jon Lester’s 15th win of the season was not all that pretty, but the team ended their 3-game skid with a 9-6 win over the O’s at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

Playoff Watch –

Yankees 4-3 win over A’s — 8 game lead over Red Sox.

Rays 2-1 win over Blue Jays — 7 game lead over Red Sox.

The OK — Jon Lester – Lester put the Red Sox in a hole despite his team scoring a run in each of the first 2 innings.  Lester gave back 4 runs in the 1st inning and another run in the 2nd inning, as the O’s led 5-2 after 2 innings of play.  But Lester cleaned up his act after that and the Red Sox rallied with a 6-run 7th inning that put the Red Sox on top for good.  Lester ended up working 6 innings, giving up 5 ER on 8 hits and 2 walks.  He did rack up 10 K’s.

The Good — Manager Terry Francona called upon Daniel Bard to give him 2 innings of work to preserve the 9-5 lead.  He gave back a run on a sacrifice fly in the 8th inning, but kept the lead intact.

The Good — Jonathan Papelbon notched his 34th save of the season with a perfect 9th inning.

The Good – The Red Sox bats – Every starter had a hit,  The club got home runs from Marco Scutaro, J.D. Drew and Adrian Beltre.  Scutaro’s 2-run shot tied the game at 5 in the 7th inning.  And after Victor Martinez’s run-scoring double gave the Red Sox a 6-5 lead, Beltre put the game away with his 3-run shot 2 batters later.  Beltre now has 24 home runs and 91 RBI’s on the season.

Daisuke Matsuzaka looks to have recovered from his back woes which forced him to skip a start last week.  He looks to give the Red Sox the series win over the Orioles tonight at Camden Yards.

The Red Sox then welcome Manny Ramirez back to Beantown this weekend when the Chicago White Sox visit town.  Ramirez visited Fenway Park earlier this season as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers back in June, but the White Sox recently acquired him in a waiver wire deal earlier this week.  Should be fun to heckle Manny again…

Josh Beckett put the Red Sox in an early 3-0 hole after 3 innings, and the Red Sox could never recover against young O’s lefty Brian Matusz.  Beckett ended up yielding those lone 3 runs through his 7 inning outing, but it wasn’t the shutdown performance that the club was looking for.

Playoff Watch –

Yankees 9-3 win over A’s — 8.0 games lead over Red Sox.

Rays 13-5 loss to Blue Jays — 7.0 games lead over Red Sox.

The Bad — Josh Beckett – you expect more from your ace against the worst team in the American League.

The Bad – Felix Doubront.  It seemed like Doubront had figured things out of late, but he was touched for 2 big runs with the Red Sox trailing by only 1 run — not good.  The solo home runs issued to Luke Scott and Felix Pie really put the game out of reach.

The Bad – The Red Sox offense — The Red Sox had 8 hits, but only 1 walk, while striking out 8 times.  Victor Martinez had 2 hits and Jed Lowrie added 2 hits as well.  Lowrie accounted for the Red Sox only 2 runs on his 2-run home run in the 5th inning that cut the O’s lead to 3-2.  The hitting has just not been consistent enough all season long.  At times they have exploded, but without Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron in the lineup, it’s going to be tough to generate enough offense.  At least the Red Sox aren’t the only ones who have been baffled by Matusz of late.  It was his 3rd win in 3 starts, as he held the White Sox to just 1 ER over 7 innings in a 4-2 win against the White Sox in Chicago on August 25th and he tossed 8 scoreless innings in a 4-0 win over the Rangers in Texas on August 19th.

Jon Lester looks to get the Red Sox back on track in order to end the 3-game skid that his really put the Red Sox playoffs hopes in jeopardy.

Josh Beckett is on the hot seat again tonight against the Orioles in Baltimore.  Beckett won his last start over the Mariners, but for the 2nd straight outing he ran out of steam in the 7th inning.  Overall, he gave up 3 ER on 4 hits (2 home runs) in 6 1/3 innings of work.  The Red Sox need him to be that 7-8 inning guy here during the month of September, if they expect to overcome the 7-game deficit to the Rays and Yankees.  Beckett has a 4-3 record in 14 starts this season, but he has a bloated 6.50 ERA and 1.48 WHIP.  Not great for someone who just signed a 4-year contract extension worth $68 million that will keep him in a Red Sox uniform through 2014.  His propensity to give up the long ball is startling for Red Sox brass and fans alike.  Since August 2009, Beckett has given up 5 or more runs in more than half of his starts (12 of 23).  Now sure, he’s been dealing with a back issue all season, and who knows if he is really 100% now, but we have to get more out of Beckett during the rest of his contract.  With John Lackey also having a mediocre season, but locked in for 4 more years like Beckett, it is imperative that Beckett and Lackey take this off-season very seriously in order to be ready for the 2011 MLB schedule right away.

Three of the Red Sox most reliable hitters are question marks for the 2010 MLB season.  Adrian Beltre has been the Red Sox best hitter in 2010.  Beltre leads the club with a .323 batting average, his 88 RBI’s, his 157 hits and his 38 doubles.  He is also 2nd with 23 home runs and 4th in runs with 68.  Those are pretty impressive stats for someone who the Red Sox wanted for his defense and who they saw as the team’s 6th or 7th hitter in the lineup.  The Red Sox saw Beltre as a place holder at 3rd base for the 2010 season, hoping that they would be able to land free-agent-to-be 1st baseman Adrian Gonzalez from the San Diego Padres which would allow them to shift Kevin Youkilis back across the diamond to his natural 3rd base position.  None of that ever happened – the Padres comfortably lead the NL West so Gonzalez is off the trading block until at least the winter meetings (he becomes a free agent after the 2011 MLB season); Youkilis got hurt; and now the Red Sox have a dilemma with what to do with the 3rd base position.  Beltre wil once again be a free agent at the end of the season, and with the way he has resurrected his career, he is going to command a multi-year deal which the Red Sox will likely not offer.

Despite playing in only 98 games because of injuries, Victor Martinez has been a steady presence in the middle of the Red Sox lineup.  He has a .292 batting average, a .339 on-base percentage, 13 HR’s, 54 RBI’s and 47 runs scored.  He is also a free agent at the end of the season and it is unclear what the Red Sox plan on doing.  With Joe Mauer locked up in Minnesota, I find it hard to believe that the Red Sox won’t ink Martinez to a long-term deal.  At 32 years of age, he is getting up there a little bit, but inking him to a 3 year deal, might not be the worst move in the world.

Now to David Ortiz – I know he has been as frustrating as ever early in the season for the 2nd year in a row, but his overall numbers are pretty decent for a DH.  He leads the team with 27 HR’s.  He is 2nd on the team with 79 RBI’s.  He has a .264 batting average and a .367 on-base percentage despite striking out a whopping 123 times.  He has scored 70 runs and his 29 doubles are only behind Beltre and Marco Scutaro on the club.  Now at 35 years old, each year could be his last, but he has a good chance of hitting 30 HR’s and 100 RBI’s on the year (he hit 28 and 99 in 2009) so he is as productive as can be expected at this stage in his career.  I’m not saying that the Red Sox should ink him to a long-term deal in the off-season, but he probably has another good year or two in there, and if he is willing to sign a 1 or 2 year deal at a “hometown” discount in order to stay in Boston, I would strongly consider it.  There might be other options out there in the winter, but Big Papi is a known commodity who can deal with the pressures of Beantown year after year.

Let’s go Sox – let’s make this interesting over the next few weeks…

Is the season over — it’s hard to think that it’s not, but the Red Sox didn’t make it easy on themselves with the series loss over the weekend in Tampa.  After Jon Lester and Victor Martinez led the team to a satusfying win on Friday night, the Red Sox had high hopes for the weekend with their best pitcher – Clay Buchholz – on the hill on Saturday night.  But it did not work out that way.

Red Sox 2, Rays 3 – Saturday night – Buchholz did his part, but Matt Garza and 4 Rays relievers were just as good, as the Red Sox fell on a walk-off home run by Dan Johnson off of Scott Atchison in the 10th inning. Buchholz held the Rays to just 1 ER over 7 1/3 innings.  He gave up only 4 hits and walked only 2 Rays in his dominant outing. His own throwing error in the 7th inning allowed the Rays to tie the game at 1.  After Carlos Pena reached on a fielder’s choice, Buchholz threw a pick-off throw into right field that allowed Pena to get to 3rd base with only 1 out.  Pena scored the tying run on  Matt Joyce’s sacrifice fly that J.D. Drew inexplicably fielded on the run in foul territory.  He should have just let it drop because there was no way he was going to throw anybody out from that position down the line in right field.  After Victor Martinez gave the Red Sox back the lead with his solo home run in top of the 8th, Buchholz gave it right back with a solo home run to BJ Upton in the bottom half of the inning.  Felix Doubront and Daniel Bard kept the game tied at 2 through 9 innings, but Atchison suffered the loss when he served up Johnson’s lead-off home run in the 10th inning.

The Red Sox got 10 hits in the game – the problem was, 7 of them were by Martinez and David Ortiz – the 3 and 4 hitters in the lineup.  Ortiz was also the only Red Sox player to draw a walk.  The rest of the team combined for just 3 hits, so they were never able to put together any sustained scoring chances.

Red Sox 3, Rays 5 – Sunday night – John Lackey, on the other hand, had another disappointing “big game” start as he couldn’t hold a 3-1 6th inning lead.  Lackey gave up a 2-run home run to Carl Crawford in the 6th inning that tied the game at 3.  After an Evan Longoria double, Lackey intentionally walked Carlos Pena and unintentionally walked Matt Joyce to load the bases with only 1 out.  Because Lackey had been cruising along up until that point, Manager Terry Francona did not have anybody warned and ready in the bullpen to face Dan Johnson.  And unfortunately, Johnson delivered a single to shallow center field that scored Longoria with the go-ahead run.  Luckily, Darnell McDonald threw out Pena at home to keep the lead 4-3.  And Lackey was able to get out of the jam by striking out BJ Upton to end the inning.  Given his problems in the 6th inning, it was strange to see Francona go with Lackey in the 7th inning after he got into immediate trouble in the 7th inning of a “must-win” game.  Jason Bartlett led off with a single, but was erased trying to steal 2nd base.  But then Lackey gave up another hit to John Jaso and walked Ben Zobrist to put 2 on with nobody out.  Then Francona finally pulled the plug on Lackey’s night by bringing in Okajima.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming Francona for the loss. but there were definitely a few questionable moves on his part.

The Red Sox offense only mustered 7 hits and 2 walks during the game.  They struck out 10 times – that is unacceptable.  Mike Lowell was the only starter with 2 hits.  Yamaico Navarro and Marco Scutaro had back-to-back RBI singles in the 5th inning to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.  And Daniel Nava’s run-scoring single in the 6th increased gave the Red Sox a 2-run lead.  But that would be the last time that the Red Sox would score.

Now the Red Sox head to Baltimore to take on the Orioles from Tuesday through Thursday.  Anything short of a sweep this week will likely put the Red Sox in an even deeper hole.

Playoff Watch –

Yankees 2 wins in a row over White Sox — 6.5 games lead over Red Sox.

Rays 2 wins in a row over Red Sox — 6.5 games lead over Red Sox.

Jon Lester picked up his 14th win of the season with a dominating 3-1 win over the Rays in Tampa on Friday night.  Lester pitched 7 innings of 1 run ball (the run was unearned because of Marco Scutaro’s error), scattering 2 hits and 5 walks during the outing.  He racked up 10 K’s and was excited with the outcome — “A big win for us.  We just battled, and that’s what we’ve been doing all season long. If we continue to do that, then that will put us in a good position, hopefully, at the end of the year.”  He was a tad wild – 5 walks and his 2 wild pitches allowed a run to score in the 4th inning – but he got out of jams when he needed to.  Darnell McDonald also threw out BJ Upton at the plate in the 6th inning to preserve the 2-1 lead at the time (Upton was trying to score on Jason Bartlett’s single).

Playoff Watch –

Yankees 9-4 loss to White Sox — 4.5 games lead over Red Sox.

Rays 3-1 loss to Red Sox — 4.5 games lead over Red Sox.

The Good — Lester – Nasty, nasty, nasty.

The Good — Victor Martinez – 3 hits including 2 big home runs in the 1st and 7th innings to pace the Red Sox offensive attack.  He has turned it on as of late – getting a hit in 8 of his last 11 games and raising his batting average to .285.

The Good — Daniel Bard gave up a hit but notched his 29th hold with a scoreless 8th inning.

The Good — Jonathan Papelbon walked 2 batters but struck out the side in the 9th inning to preserve the 3-1 win.

The Good (& Bad) — The Red Sox offense racked up 10 hits, but scored only 3 runs, 2 of which came on solo home runs from Victor Martinez.  The Red Sox had a runner on base in every inning except the 9th inning, but they only had 2 runners on base at the same time in 1 inning.  Jed Lowrie had an RBI single and J.D. Drew had 2 hits.  Every starter had at least 1 hit except for Bill Hall.

Next Up – Buchholz v. Garza tonight in Game 2 – can you say 3.5 games back???