At last, the dynamic duo is back, as the Red Sox upped their season high winning streak to 5 games with a 5-0 win over the Mariners at Fenway Park this evening.  The win pushed the Red Sox to 17-19 on the season and things seem to be falling into place for the Red Sox (at least for the time being).

In Monday night’s 6-1 win, Jon Lester through a complete game, scattering 8 hits and allowing just 1 ER.  He did not walk a batter and he struck out 6. Daniel Nava had a 2-run homer in the 4th inning, while Cody Ross and Kelly Shoppach each added 2 hits.

In today’s 5-0 win, Josh Beckett silenced his critics with 7 scoreless innings – 4 hits, 2 walks and 9 K’s. David Ortiz hit his 8th homer of the season, while Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Mike Aviles each added 2 hits.

It hasn’t been pretty or easy for the Red Sox this season.  But given the injuries to Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury in the outfield, and then your set-up man and closer, the fact that the Red Sox are 17-19 is pretty impressive.  Throw in the fact that Lester is 2-3 and Beckett is 3-4, you’ve gotta think that if they can just weather the storm, good things are on the horizon.

Guess we’ll have to wait and see, but in the meantime, GO SOX!!!

The Red Sox took 3 of 4 from the red-hot Indians, helping to salvage what has been a long stretch for the ball club.  Daniel Bard picked up win #3, scattering 6 hits and 4 walks while limiting the damage to just 1 ER.  In the process, he lowered his WHIP to 1.54 and his ERA to 4.30.

The Cubs teed off on 2 former Red Sox pitchers.  Justin Masterson surrendered 6 ER on 7 hits and 1 walk in 6 innings.  Dan Wheeler got shell-shocked for 6 ER on 5 hits and 1 walk in just 1 inning of work.

Will Middlebrooks continued his hot hitting – 2 for 3 with a home run, a walk, 2 RBI’s and 3 runs scored.  Daniel Nava had 2 hits, 3 RBI’s and 3 runs scored.  Jarrod Saltalamacchia has also remained hot of late – he hit a 2-run home run off of Wheeler in the 7th inning – 3 hits, 5 RBI’s and 1 run scored, while upping his batting average to .250.

The Red Sox ar 14-19 and they trail the Baltimore Orioles by 6.5 games in the AL East race.  They host the Seattle Mariners for a quick 2-game set at Fenway before they kick off an important 8-game road trip against the Rays in Tampa, the Phillies in Philadelphia and the O’s in Baltimore.

Come on Sox – let’s keep it going,

The Red Sox are in a funk – plain and simple.  Clay Buchholz needs to pick up his teammates tonight with a strong outing against the AL Central-leading Cleveland Indians.

While most of the city was rejoicing the Celtics taking out the Atlanta Hawks in Round 1 over at the Garden, there were a few people at Fenway watching Josh Beckett implode on the bump.  Beckett has been rightly criticized all week after his shenanigans at his charity golf outing last week.  Just the day before, he was supposedly “too sore” to make his scheduled start because of a sore lat muscle in his back.  The next day he is fine to play golf?  Something has to give.  Especially after last season’s debacle and the brass/fans questioning the dedication of certain players, a stunt like this is not going to endear Beckett to anyone.  So he gets his week off to rest and then lays an egg against the upstart Indians – a team he has dominated in the past.  Beckeet couldn’t even make it through 3 innings – he surrendered 7 ER on 7 hits (including 2 home runs) and 2 walks. Not good.

The Red Sox are reeling – 3 straight losses – 11 losses in their last 12 home games at Fenway Park – an overall 12-19 record that leaves them trailing the Rays and O’s by 7.5 games already.  Buchholz is 3-1 despite a blistering 9.09 ERA and 2.02 WHIP.  How is that even possible.  In any event, he’ll need to bring his A-game if the Red Sox hope to snap their current losing streak…

It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win, as the Red Sox hung on for a 7-6 win and a sweep of the Twins in Minneapolis.  Clay Buchholz notched win number 2, but he needed some help in the 6th as he ran out of juice.  Buchholz cruised through 5 innings of 1-run ball, but almost gave away the Red Sox whole 7-1 lead heading into the inning.  After giving up a run on a hit by Denard Span, Buchholz walked Jamey Carroll to load the bases.  Bobby V went with Scott Atchison who promptly served up a 2-run single to Joe Mauer.  Justin Thomas immediately relieved Atchison and he quickly gave up a double to Justin Mourneau and plunked C Parmelle.  At that point, Bobby V was about to explode.  Matt Albers kept the trend going by allowing a hit to Trevor Plouffe but he induced the inning-ending double-play to preserve the precarious 1 run lead.

Buchholz’s line looked awful again – 5 1/3 innings, 5 ER on 10 hits and 3 walks.  An atrocious 1.93 WHIP and 8.87 ERA.  Shockingly, he is still 2-1.

The rest of the bullpen actually did its job.  Vincente Padilla, Franklin Morales and Alfredo Aceves each tossed scoreless inning, although Aceves made it interesting by loading the bases with a hit, walk and HBP.  Nice.  He has 4 saves despite his 2.60 WHIP and 14.40 ERA.

Luckily, the Red Sox bats have been consistently amazing.  10 more hits, 7 more runs.  A 3-run homer from Mike Aviles who keeps showing some pop in that bat and 3 more hits for Dustin Pedroia who is tearing it up.  David Ortiz snapped a 6-game hitting streak with his 0 for 3 night.

Next up is a 4-game trip to the Windy City to take on the White Sox on the south side.  They’ll be the 1st team to face Phil Humber since he became the 21st major league pitcher to throw a perfect game when the White Sox beat the Mariners 4-0 last Saturday.  Felix Doubront goes for the Sox – he has not earned a decision in 3 starts this season.

It was a much-needed easy 11-2 win for the Red Sox over the Twins on Tuesday night.

Josh Beckett evened his record at 2-2 with 6 effective innings.  He scattered 5 hits and 3 walks, limiting the Twins to just 2 ER.

More importantly, it has been 2 good night’s in a row for the bullpen after the disastrous series against the Yankees.  Scott Atchison pitched 2 perfect innings with 3 K’s.  And Matt Albers pitched a scoreless 9th allowing just 1 hit.

Mike Aviles was the star – 4 for 5 with 2 RBI’s and 3 runs scored.  He hit a solo home run in the 4th inning and he is now hitting .33 and sparking rallies at the top of the order.  David Ortiz continued his hot hitting – 2 for 4 with a home run and 3 RBI’s.  Adrian Gonzalez added 3 hits, 2 RBI’s and 2 runs scored.  Even Kevin Youkilis got into the act – his 2 hits finally got his batting average back up to .200 on the dot.

The Red Sox go for the sweep tonight as Clay Buchholz looks for his 2nd win of the 2012 campaign.

It wasn’t pretty but the Red Sox ended their skid with a come from behind 6-5 win over the Twins in Minnesota on Monday night.  After building an early 3-0 lead, it was de ja vu all over again as the Twins rallied for 4 runs in the 4th and another run in the 5th against Jon Lester.  Lester buckled down and worked 2 more scoreless innings to keep the Red Sox in the game, but his line was not good at all – 7 innings, 5 ER on 6 hits and 4 walks.  His WHIP is a startling 1.50 and his ERA swelled to 6.00.

But this time, the bullpen kept things in check for the final 2 frames. Franklin Morales recorded an out in the 8th inning – YIPPEE!  After giving up a hit, he was bailed out by converted-back-to-reliever stud Daniel Bard.  Bard got the final 2 outs of the inning and my prediction is that he becomes the new closer very very soon.

Alfredo Aceves looked good in the 9th despite giving up a hit.  He notched his 3rd save but his WHIP is 2.75 and his ERA is 18.00.  Can you imagine relying upon a closer with those kind of numbers?  It just doesn’t work!

In any event, Cody Ross’s 2-run jack in the 7th inning tied the game at 5.  His solo shot in the 9th inning won it.  Jarrod Saltalamacchia added a homer in the 2nd inning and David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia and Ryan Sweeney each had 2 hits as well.  Ortiz is just tearing it up with his .441 batting average .678 slugging percentage and 12 RBI’s.

Now it’s up to Josh Beckett to get the Red Sox over the hump with a 2-game winning streak in tonight’s contest against Nick Blackburn. The Red Sox 5-10 record leaves the club only 4.5 games behind the 1st place Yankees and Blue Jays, so there is PLENTY of time left in the season…

Unbelievable.  After losing to the Yankees in Friday’s Fenway celebration, the Red Sox raced out to an early 9-0 lead by the end of 5 innings on Saturday. The Red Sox offense took care of business early against Freddy Garcia, Clay Rapada and David Phelps.  David Ortiz and Jarrod Saltalamacchia led the way with 4 hits apiece.  Mike Aviles , Dustin Pedroia and Cody Ross added 2 hits apiece.  It looked like the Red Sox would end their mini skid – things looked great as Felix Doubront navigated through the 6th inning by allowing just 1 ER.  He was done for the day with a respectable – 6 innings of work – 1 ER on 4 hits and 3 walks with 7 K’s.

Then all hell broke loose.  Nick Swisher hit a grand slam in the 7th inning.  A few batters later, Mark Teixeira hit his 2nd homer in as many innings, a 3-run blast over the Green Monster that cut the Red Sox lead to 9-8.  Only 2 innings to go – still doable, right?  Wrong.

The 8th inning brought forth a 2nd consecutive 8-run inning and just like that, the Yankees led 15-9.  Ouch.

Check out these lines from the bullpen:

Vincente Padilla – 1/3 inning – 5 ER on 4 hits and 1 walk.

Matt Albers faced 2 batters and did not record an out.

Franklin Morales – 2/3 inning – 1 ER on 2 hits.

Alfredo Aceves walked 4 batters and gave up 2 hits and DID NOT RECORD A SINGLE OUT!  That led to 5 ER.

Justin Thomas – 2/3 inning – 1 ER on 2 hits.

Junichi Tazawa was the only effective reliever.  He gave up 1 hit and no runs in his 1 1/3 innings of work and has yet to allow a run this season.

WOW – this is not good.  I guess things can only get better, right Bobby V?!

The Red Sox celebrated the 100th anniversary of the 1st game played at Fenway Park today in fine fashion.  The club brought back over 200 former players and partied all day long – up until game time that is.  The Yankees clubbed 5 solo homers against Clay Buchholz in only 6 innings of work and the Yankees cruised to an easy 6-2 win over the lowly Red Sox.  The Red Sox dropped to 4-9 on the young season and they are now in sole possession of last place.  Not good.  Buchholz’s numbers rose to 1.76 WHIP and 9.00 ERA with another poor outing.  And the Red Sox offense continued to sputter without catalyst Jacoby Ellsbury at the top of the order.  Despite getting 7 hits against Yankees starter Ian Nova, they scored only 2 runs on the day.  David Ortiz had 2 hits including a solo home run in the 2nd inning.  Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect 9th inning with 2 strikeouts to finish off the frustrating loss for the Red Sox and their fans.

Felix Doubront will square off against Freddy Garcia in Game 2 of the series at Fenway Park Saturday afternoon at 4:15PM. Go Sox!!!

Jon Lester was the tough luck loser in the Red Sox 3-1 loss to the Blue Jays in Toronto on Wednesday.  Lester was out-dueled by Ricky Romero who held the Red Sox to just 3 hits and 1 run on a Jacoby Ellsbury single in the 3rd inning.

Lester pitched an 8-inning complete game and deserved a better fate.  He scattered 3 hits and 2 walks and allowed the 3 ER.  He struck out 3 batters and lowered his WHIP to 0.93 and his ERA to 2.40.

It has been another rough start for the Red Sox in 2012 – 1-5 record.  Let’s hope things improve in Boston as the Red Sox take on the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox need a complete game from Josh Beckett given their bullpen woes. Jon Lester pitched well in the Red Sox opening day 3-2 loss to the Tigers on Thursday, but the bullpen allowed runs in the 8th and 9th innings which sealed the Red Sox fate.  Beckett looks to get off to a quick start in 2012.  His ailing thumb has been ruled a non-issue, so Beckett should be good to go. Beckett has fared well at Comerica Park – 2-1 record with a 1.31 ERA in 20+ innings.

Doug Fister finished the 2011 campaign with an amazing close.  Following a July 30th trade from the Seattle Mariners, Fister went 8-1 with a nasty 1.79 ERA in 11 starts.

Go Sox Go!