Salty, what were you thinking?

It only took us 4 games this year. Tonight the Red Sox prevailed 4-2 against the Toronto Blue Jays to earn their first win of the season. Once again the Red Sox scored late runs to take the lead, but this time the bullpen actually held on.

The Red Sox comeback in the top of the 9th is almost assured to outshine Doubront’s quality start, but we can’t forget what Doubront provided the Red Sox tonight. Although he had trouble finishing off the hitters, he still had a quality performance, going 5 innings while allowing 4 hits, 2 runs, and 3 walks. It has to be said that the two runs he allowed were thanks to a terrible call by the home plate umpire. If you watch the replay again it looks as if he is out, though it wouldn’t have even been a question if Salty wasn’t stupidly pointing at second. He struck out 6 Blue Jays batters and held even more to 0-2 counts, unfortunately he couldn’t finish some of them off. I know it’s only one start, but it’s encouraging to see Doubront do well in his first start of the season. The Red Sox need him to be a quality starter badly, and he lessened their worries today.

The Red Sox were held scoreless until Dustin Pedroia hit a laser to right to give the Red Sox their first run. After 3 Mariano esque innings from Scott Atchison, Pedroia got things started in the ninth with a laser to left to give the Red Sox a man in scoring position with no outs. After a passed ball to move Pedey over to third, AGon hit a sac fly to left to tie things up. After two straight walks by David Ortiz and Cody Ross, Ryan Sweeney hit a single to right that scored Darnell McDonald who was inserted as a pinch runner after Ross walked. Another wild pitch scored Ross from third and the Red Sox took a 4-2 lead. Aceves came into the game to close things out, and he finally got an ERA and his first save of the season. Aceves retired the side in order to give the Red Sox their first win in 2012.

All in all it wasn’t a horrible opening day. Lester was solid, going 7 innings while allowing 6 hits, 3 walks, and one earned run while striking out 4. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, Verlander was better.The 2011 MVP and Cy Young winner went 8 innings give up only 2 hits and one walk while striking out 7. He was magnificent today, rarely giving an inch to the Red Sox all day long.

The Red Sox were trailing 2-0 in the top of the ninth, but a Pedroia double to start the inning gave the Red Sox life. Adrian hit a single to left to move Pedroia over to 3rd and Papi hit a sac fly to center to give the Red Sox their first run of the season. Youk struck out on a foul tip, but Darnell McDonald stole second with Sweeney batting and Sweeney hit a bomb triple to right that just missed a home run to right. Unfortunately Ross lined out to Jhonny Peralta to end the inning.

The Red Sox bullpen faltered in the bottom half of the inning. Mark Melancon came into the game to try to keep the Tigers at bay, but was lifted by Bobby Valentine after 2 straight singles with one out. Ramon Santiago was hit with a pitch to load the bases, and Austin Jackson hit a walk off single to right off Aceves to give the Tigers their first win of the season. It’s a tough loss, but there are a lot of positives to take out of the game. The Red Sox had a great rally to tie it up and Lester looked good for most of the game. I still have a lot of concerns about our bullpen, but I have the same feeling every year so I don’t expect that to go away any time soon. Red Sox will try to tie the series up on Saturday with Beckett on the hill at 4:00 PM ET on FOX.

Wade Davis, why must you make me look a fool?

Tampa Bay was able to inch forward in the playoff race in a 7-2 win over the Red Sox. Wade Davis put on a show, pitching a complete game whilst allowing just 2 runs on 6 hits, 8 strikeouts and no walks.

Lackey, who was pitching worse than my grandmother (3 IP, 5ER, 5 H, 3 BB), left the game after a batted ball hit him in the left leg.

John Jaso hit a 3 run homer in the second, and Johnny Damon stole a base an drove in a run.

The lone bright spot for the Sox was Jacoby Ellsbury’s single to improve his hitting streak to 14 games. Lackey is questionable for his next start.

Ugh is the best way to sum up the last two games in one word. A better way to sum up the last two games in one sentence is “train wreck pitching and managing.” The Red Sox fell again to the Blue Jays 7-4 behind some truly awful pitching from Andrew Miller and a bad managerial decision. I saw Andrew Miller’s first Fenway start in person and I knew that he was never going to make it just from that one start. He can never hit the zone and doesn’t have the velocity to make up for his amazing lack of any control.

Miller lasted 5 innings allowing 8 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks, and 2 home runs. On the season opponents are hitting .307 against him and are hitting at a .307/.399/.443 line against him, that’s pretty close to Dustin Pedroia’s line this year. Words can not express my distain that Miller has started 11 games while Weiland only has 2 starts. But that’s for another article.

The Red Sox looked done until the 7th when Ellsbury hit a double to plate Captain Tek. With runners at 2nd and 3rd Scutaro came through yet again, raising his average in the last few weeks to .790 (not really, but he’s been raking). Thames provided insurance in the bottom half of the 7th against Michael Bowden with a homer to right and David Cooper tacked on in the 8th with an RBI double.

The Red Sox had a chance to come back in the 9th yet again, but failed to do so. Tek hit a shot to right to cut the lead to 3 before Tito made the mistake of pinch-hitting Nate Spears instead of MVP candidate Adrian Gonzalez with one out and nobody on. Obviously Spears grounded out to second, that was predetermined. The Red Sox refused to die, with Ellsbury getting on thanks to an error by Kelly Johnson and Scutaro hitting another single to right. Pedroia failed to come through though so the Red Sox dropped their third game out of their last four. It was a very disappointing loss, and now the Red Sox are only 6 and a half games ahead of those pesky Devil Rays with a 3 game series in Tampa looming.

There are no words...

There are just some losses that are more annoying than others. On a scale from 1 to Aaron Boone this game is right in the middle. It looked as if Wake would get win #200 finally and the Red Sox would get a game back on the Yankees. Well the Blue Jays had something to say about that.

The Red Sox had an 8-6 lead going into the 8th with Bard coming in. Game over right? Well Bard forgot he is one of the best relievers in the game and walked three batters and hit one. That’s just a recipe for disaster. He ended up allowing 5 runs to give the Blue Jays a commanding 11-8 lead. But he should have ended up with less.

Terry Francona deserves a lot of blame for this loss. His first bad decision was allowing a tired and very shaky Bard to face future AL MVP Jose Bautista, one who’s season has been compared to Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds. His next egregious move was allowing Matt Albers, who has a spectacular 7.77 (not a type, he’s been worse than Scott Schoeneweis the last few months) to face Edwin Encarnacion when the most obvious move was to go to Papelbon who has been the Papelbon of old this season. Hmm a closer with one blown save all year and a WHIP below 1 or a shaky middle reliever who can’t pitch to save his life the last few months? Tough decision there.

The Red Sox had a nice attempt at a comeback in the 9th, stopping me from breaking something. AGon unleashed a beautiful swing to cut the lead to 2, and Scu Scu Scutaro drove in Big Papi (who now has an OPS above 1.000 and should be considered in the MVP race). Tito decided to pinch run Mike “I can’t hit or field” Aviles which ended up being a bad decision, though hindsight is 20/20. Aviles thought it would be a great idea to try and steal with 2 outs and was out by more than a mile. If Crawford or Ellsbury had tried to steal I wouldn’t mind at all, but Aviles is not the guy I want stealing with the game on the line. I sure do hope that Tito didn’t tell Aviles that he could steal, or that would be 3 blown decisions in 2 innings which is a feat that even Grady Little had trouble accomplishing. All in all a tough loss, but the Yankees lost to the mighty Orioles and we have Andrew “Ace” Miller pitching tomorrow so we’ll be fine. (Gulp)

John Lackey gets the W in the first of a three game set against the Seattle Mariners. Lackey was unspectacular; he surrendered 4 runs and 10 hits over 6 innings against the league’s worst offense. Luckily, the Sox hit 3 home runs off of Mariners starter Blake Beavan to lead Boston to victory.

David Ortiz and Jed Lowrie each hit solo home runs. Josh Reddick hit a 2-run bomb in the 6^th inning to put the Sox ahead for good and Big Papi drove in another run in the 7^th to knock Beavan out of the game.

Morales, Bard and Papelbon combined to pitch 3 shutout innings of relief. Papelbon also recorded his 27^th save of the season.

Mike Carp had success today, driving in 3 runs against Lackey while posting a game-high 3 hits. Franklin Gutierrez also had a good game- he had 2 hits, 2 stolen bases and 2 runs scored.

The win allowed the Sox to increase their lead in the standings as the Yankees lost 5-1 in a game which C.C. Sabathia allowed 5 home runs to the Tampa Bay Ray.

The Yankees bullpen stole the show in the first game of a crucial series between Boston and New York. After Bartolo Colon failed to escape the fifth inning, 5 Yankee relievers combined for 4.1 shutout innings.

Boone Logan recorded arguably the most important out of the game; he struck out Adrian Gonzalez to end the fifth inning with the bases loaded. Lester was pitching a gem prior to the 6^th inning, during which he surrendered 3 runs which was enough to win the game.

Ortiz hit a homerun in the 4^th inning. The Red Sox bullpen was effective as they combined for 3 shut out innings after Lester left the game. Unfortunately, the Sox were unable to muster the necessary offense.

Jacoby Ellsbury hit a walkoff home run with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was his second walkoff in as many games.

A day after turning 45, Tim Wakefield took the mound in hopes of collecting the elusive 200^th win of his career. Despite a very solid showing (6.2 IP, 5 H, 3 ER), he Wakefield left a tie ball game and recieved a no decision. Papelbon recieved the W.

Opposing starter Carlos Carrasco was arguably just as effective, surrendering 3 runs (2 earned) on 9 hits over 7 innings. Tony Sipp pitched a perfect 8^th inning before Joe Smith came on in the ninth and surrendered the home run to Ellsbury. Smith had a 1.06 ERA over 42.1 innings prior to tonights game.

Gonzalez, Pedroia and Reddick each had multi-hit games, and Mike Aviles stole his first base in a Red Sox uniform.

Watch Jacoby\’s Walk Off shot again!

The Red Sox  won the final game of a 3 game set against Chicago to take the series 2-1. Andrew Miller was unspectacular yet effective, allowing a handful of bloop hits in a 5.2 IP, 10 H, 3 ER effort. Alfredo Aceves came in to pitch an inning of relief and recieved the W to improve his record to 7-1.

Pedroia went 2-4 and drove in 2 runs in the 7^th to give the Red Sox the lead for good. Adrian Gonzalez went 2-4 and is 23 for his last 43. He has had multiple hits in each of the past 7 games.

Daniel Bard pitched 1.1 innings to extend his current streak to 26.1 IP without allowing a run.

Today’s win gave the Red Sox their 20^th win of the month, setting a franchise record for the month of July. The last time the Red Sox won 20 games in a month was in May, 2007.

Alfredo Aceves records 7th win of season.