Spring has Sprung

After two weeks of practice work outs it's finally time for the Red Sox to actually play a game, well sorta. The Spring Training schedule begins tomorrow with a twin bill against two colleges from Boston. The Red Sox will play an early game against Northeastern University and a late match  up against Boston College. 

"That part is fun," said Dustin Pedroia. "You're building up to get ready for the season. It's been a while since we played games, and that's why you put in all the hard work, is to play well during the games. It's going to be fun."

There will be one surprise about tomorrows games and that is who will be playing first base against BC. David Ortiz will be playing first base in that game. Bobby Valentine must be trying to see what Oritz has left in the tank to play him against a college team at first. 

Lineups for 3/3/12

Northeastern at 2:35 p.m.

Iglesias SS

Ellsbury CF

Pedroia 2B

Gonzalez 1B

Saltalamacchia C

McDonald DH

Sweeney RF

Ross LF

Middlebrooks 3B

Pitchers

Lester

Germano

Bowden

Albers

Boston College at 7:05 p.m.

Aviles SS

Lin CF

Youkilis 3B

Ortiz 1B

Punto 2B

Lavarnway C

Kooeger RF

Hassan DH

Repko LF

Pitchers

Doubront

Tazawa

Mathis

Spoone

Three Red Sox Players Bring Home the Gold

After all the drama that the Red sox have occurred so far this off-season I feel like some good news is finally in hand. Yesterday the Rawlings Gold Glove awards were given out to three of our very own.

For those of you who may not know but the Gold Glove is. It is given out to the best defensive player at each position on the field and this year’s award winners from the Red Sox were Adrian Gonzalez at first base, Dustin Pedroia at second, and Jacoby Ellsbury in centerfield winning his first.

For Gonzalez this is his third Gold Glove but his first in the American League. Gonzalez had a .997 fielding percentage in 2011, a career high, with only four errors on the season.   

Gonzalez was on ESPN at the time the awards were given out.

"It feels great. It’s pretty awesome hearing Dustin won as well. It’s pretty awesome playing along side him. Being able to win in both leagues I’m pretty grateful to everyone who voted for me," he said.

"I always say pitching and defense is what’s going to win championships. I take a lot of pride in it. I try to be a complete player. You can always go into offensive slumps, but defense is something that should never leave you."

Pedroia is taking the award home for the second time since his 2008 MVP season. In 2011, he had a .990 fielding percentage with seven errors, the most of his career.

Ellsbury has had an amazing season in 2011 after such a poor season in 2010 after only playing in 18 games due to injury. Ellsbury was named last month as the 2011 American League Comeback Player of the year he was also named to his first All-Star team. He has put up numbers that many feel could win him the AL MVP award which he will probably fall short of due to the Red Sox not making the post season.  While he was doing amazing things with the bat this past season he is being awarded for his defensive play as he had a perfect year in center field win zero errors and a 1.000 fielding percentage in a 154 games played at the position.

Kevin Youkilis was named a finalist for the Gold Glove at third base in his first full season back at the hot corner. Youkilis played in 112 games at third with .967 fielding with nine errors on the year. He fail to the guy he replaced Adrian Beltre who also played in 112 games at third with a .965 fielding with 11 errors.

The next awards to be given out will be the Silver Slugger awards which will be awarded on November 10^th and a couple of Red Sox players will probably take him this hardware as well just have to wait and see.

Pedroia to Clean Up Kansas City

With Kevin Youkilis out that only means one thing, Dustin Pedroia gets to shine in the clean up spot and boy did he ever. Pedroia lead the Red Sox to a 4-3 win in Kansas City.

The offence has been struggling the past couple of game with the lose of Youkilis and David Ortiz and Pedroia was the needed spark as he went 3-for-4 with three RBI. He knocked in two runs in the top of third to put the Sox up 3-1 on a single. Pedroia's thrid RBI came in the top of fifth inning on a single to score Jed Lowrie, he attempted to get to second base and was picked off. Pedroia ended his batting with a double in the top of the eighth.

Pedroia has been electric in the clean up spot with a .491 (27-for-55)batting average as the clean up man. Not only is his batting average so high in the spot but he has five homers and 15 RBI.

The game was a Pedroia show but Josh Beckett was on the mound looking for his tenth win of the season and he finally got it. By no means was this the best start of the season but it was good enough for the win. Beckett only struck out four batters while giving up seven hits and three runs all earned and one home run.

Beckett went out of the game after pitching seven and handed the ball to his rear unstoppable duo of Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon. Both guys reached milestones as Daniel Bard after pitching a scoreless eighth got his 29th hold of the season. This is the most by any reliever to wear the Red Sox uniform in 123 games.

Papelbon came into the game in the ninth a was unstoppable with two strikeouts to get his 29th save of the season and his 24th consecutive. The 24 straight is a career high for Papelbon but it is also the second longest streak in the American League.

It was also the Major League Debut of Ryan Lavarnway who went 0-for-4 on the night.

Happy Birthday to the Muddy Chicken!

With my first blog back since my laptop went down I thought I would go ahead a take time to wish Dustin Pedroia a happy 28th birthday. Pedroia is a former gold glover, 3-time All Star, former rookie of the year and MVP. Pedroia is having a MVP type season this year as well. Happy Birthday to the Muddy Chicken, give us a Laser Show today on your birthday!!!

It Makes Me Physical Sick to Lose

I have been in the bed all day with a Migraine and after this most recent lose by the Sox I feel like everything is getting worse. So if I go to the doctors and he ask what is wrong I am going to tell him the Red Sox can't win a game and they are killing me.

Last night the Sox lost to the Blue Jays 7-6 in a game we could have won. Clay Buchholz had a 3-0 lead going into the top of fifth. Dustin Pedroia had just put a laser show on a knocked a solo home run into the stands at Fenway followed by a two-run homer for Kevin Youkilis. With one out Buchholz walks two start batters to bring Corey Patterson up to the plate with two on with men on second and third hits a bases clearing triple to get the ball rolling for the Jays.

After Buchholz had been roughed up in the fifth he gets the ok to back on the mound for a sixth well that was a poor idea. He gives up a lead off walk and a single before Tito says enough is enough. Brings Alfedo Aceves from the bullpen thinking he can control a win well he is unable to and allows Adam Lind to score giving another earned run to Buchholz.

With the game tied Bobby Jenks comes to the mound he has been a soild pitcher so far this season but just not last night. Jenks comes to the mound and gives up the lead off walk to Jason Nix than a single to Yunel Escobar. As if this wasn't enough to he gives up not one but two more hits each for an RBI to make the game 5-3. At this point you think the fish hook has to be coming well instead a mound visit its sweet of the pitching coach to make the long trip to the mound to do nothing because he left Jenks in long enough to give up not one but two more runs!

The Sox are down 7-3 in the bottom of the eighth when a ray of light comes to Fenway. I think I may have even saw some kid in the outfield waving his arms like an angel was there but that could have been the migraine. But the bottom half starts with a ground out by Gonzalez followed by a walk to Youkilis and a walk to David Ortiz. With J.D. Drew at the plate he stikes out swinging. Jed Lowrie comes up to the plate to pinch hit for Jarrod Saltalamacchia, which was the best move Tito made all night. Lowrie singles which scored Youkilis and puts Ortiz at third and starts the rally. Marco Scutaro hits a double down the left field line for a double scoring both Oritz and Lowrie. With a chance for the win Jacoby Ellsbury comes up to the plate and flies out to end the inning.

The Red Sox would not score again to give the game the final score of 7-6. This has been a rough season so far that has left several people sick including myself. Fans are physically, mentally and emotional sick of the Red Sox losing and it is hard for this blogger to be possitive in times like this. I love the Red Sox but to quote Fever Pitch "You love the Sox, but have they ever loved you back?" I know the Red Sox have loved me back in the past but this years group needs to show fans some love quick and start winning some games. They are currently the worst team in baseball and it breaks my heart.

BecKKKKKKKKKKett is back!!!!

Wow! That is all I have to say about Josh Beckett’s performance last night against the Yankees. That is the best pitching I have saw out of Beckett in at least the last two seasons to lead the Red Sox to a 4-0 win.

Coming into this game people was doubting him and wondering if he would ever be worth his $68 Million dollar contract. But Beckett come out mixing his pitches better than I have saw him do ever and was throwing the flame as he fanned 10 batters and only allowed two men on base and those only came in the first three innings of the game. His two strongest pitches of the night was his two-seamer that had great movement and he was throwing his curveball perfect as well as for strike. It was just amazing to witness.

The one thing that is different between this start and Beckett’s last? Jason Varitek. Varitek has a special bond with Beckett as he can call an amazing game for him. Varitek is the genius catcher that has caught four no-hitters he knows how to call a game. I believe after this start he will be Beckett’s full time catcher from here on out.

While Beckett was pitching amazing he had some help from Dustin Pedroia’s defense. Pedroia showed why he is one of the top defensive second basemen in the game. Throwing guys out on plays most couldn’t get to. He brought his bat to this series as well. Pedroia went 9-for-13 and 3-for-4 last night against the Yankees. It showed all Pedroia needed was to get back to Fenway in front of the home town crowd to get it going on the season.

The was some bad last night though for offense the bats was moving for singles but it was like no one could hit once men was on base. Last night the guys went 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position. There were only two guys to hit for double all game and that was David Ortiz and Marco Scutaro. Scutaro’s second double of the game come at the perfect time with bases loaded to give the Sox a 3-0 lead.

Another great was Jonathan Papelbon, though he came in the ninth it wasn’t for a save but he sure pitched like it was. Papelbon struck out a hot Brett Gardner and Mark Teixeira and forced Derek Jeter to ground out to Pedroia.

This was an important win for the Red Sox with a struggling Tampa Bay team coming in today and this could be the confidence they need to get this season off and running.

Yankees 0|2|0

Red Sox 4|12|0

Box

Home is Where the Red Sox Heart is: Red Sox Get First Win

BOX

Today was opening day at Fenway Park and the Evil Empire New York Yankees are in town. With their rival in town what better time to pick up the first win of the year. Well it happened the Red Sox defeated the Yankees 9-6.

Coming into the game today fans was restless and some even starting to panic wondering when the first win would happen. I think the management even was thinking like that to because GM Theo Epstein held a closed-door meet with the team ready to play and it worked. Red Sox set up man Daniel Bard “On a scale of 1 to awesome, it was awesome. It was like Rudy, except there was no prayer at the end.” If it takes pep talks like this all season I say get in their everyday Theo and do work.

Today’s game was like a boxing match that was split up into nine rounds because both teams came out swinging early. The first inning the Yankees put up two runs in the first inning thanks to Robinson Cano knocking in a pair of runs in. The Red Sox could not allow them to steal the show at the home opener so Dustin Pedroia gets up to bat and starts his 2011 Laser Show by knocking a home run into the monster seats.

The top of the second Brett Gardner hit a double to score a run making it 3-1 at the middle of the second. This is when the Red Sox bats decided to go nuts as they would score 5 runs off of Yankee right hander Phil Hughes. All nine Red Sox batters saw action in this inning as Hughes gave up six hits, a fielder’s choice and a walk. After all that action it would be the end of Hughes day.

So with the offense being in full sync you would assume pitching would be as well. Well you know what happens when you assume it makes an ass out of you and me. Most people would think after Jon Lester went seven innings of shut-out ball Thursday that John Lackey would follow with a similar performance not at all. Lackey pitched so poorly that he gave up at least one run in all five innings of work. Lackey was charged with six runs on seven hits, while walking two and striking out a pair and giving up a home run to A-Rod.

Following the Lackey disaster Jarrod Saltalamacchia gets an RBI to give the sox a 7-6 lead and gives Lackey the undeserved win. The seventh inning was another big one for the Sox as they put two more runs on the board. The Seventh started with Adrian Gonzalez hitting a leadoff single followed by Big Papi hitting a green monster double for his third hit of the day. J.D. Drew comes up to the plate and blast a base hit that would allow both Gonzalez and Ortiz to score.

The Red Sox bullpen looked amazing today with the newly addition Alfredo Aceves pitching the sixth, Bobby Jenks in the seventh, Daniel Bard in the eighth and Jonathon Papelbon getting the Save. The four of these guys combined for one hit and five strike outs and most important no runs.

The Red Sox are finally getting in gear for the season getting their bats going, now if pitching can get in gear the Sox are going to be a force to be recon with. Getting home was just what the doctors ordered.

Sox 0-4 Fans Need to Relax it's Only April

After yet another lose last night making them 0-4. Red Sox fans all over are going to record books, cussing players and some thinking of jumping off a building. But don’t do it there are still 158 more games to play and it just April and at the first week of the season.

Last night’s game against the Indians was not a great one as the bats wasn’t popping and Beckett wasn’t pitching. Though Josh Beckett did not pitch well enough to get the win, he did bring the best performance of the season. He started out strong early in the game but had a rocky fourth inning and after that wasn’t good for anything. Beckett gave up five hits and three runs all earned but were able to find the zone. He struck out four batters and issued 65 strikes out of a 106 pitches in the game in five innings of work.

There was one thing that was great last night and that was the bullpen. The Red Sox had three complete innings of no hit baseball out of the pen. Matt Albers came in the sixth innings after Beckett gave up his third run in the game. Albers pitching was amazing as he issued three strike outs while walking one batter. He thought 22 pitches and 11 of them were in for strike. The seventh brought Bobby Jenks who also faced four batters while striking out three and a walk. The eighth has Daniel Bard going three up and three down. This is the kind of pitching we need from the bullpen if our starts aren’t going to be able to go the extra innings to win the game.

Though pitching was good the offense was non-existent again for the fourth straight game. The team only had four hits in this game and two of them were from Dustin Pedroia as he attempts to fuel the offense. Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia finally got his first hit of the season which resulted in an RBI as David Ortiz scored the only run of the game.

The Red Sox weakness came in the leadoff roles as Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford went 0-8 together in the top of the order.

As I said earlier the Red Sox are off to a poor start but it is still early in the season and there is plenty of baseball left. Everyone is freaking out about this but historically our pitching staff has bad Aprils and Carl Crawford who everyone is freaking out over always gets off to a bad start, just ask the dozen Rays fans out there. Things will turn around and the Red Sox will be the team everyone predicted them to be at the start of the season. So just relax, grab a brew and wait for the lasor show that is the Red Sox to get started.

Red Sox Line Up Against Indians 4/5/2011

With the Red Sox still looking for their first win of the season they will take on the Cleveland Indians tonight on the road. The Indians currently hold a 1-2 record. The Red Sox will put Josh Beckett on the mound for his first start of the season and he will go up against Josh Tomlin.

Lineups for todays game:

Red Sox Indians

CF Ellsbury CF Brantley

LF Crawford SS Cabrera,A

2B Pedroia RF Choo

1B Gonzalez C Santana

3B Youkilis DH Hafner

DH Oritz 2B Cabrera, O

RF Drew LF Kearns

C Saltalamacchia 1B LaPorta

SS Scutaro 3B Hannahan

Are You Ready Yet? The Red Sox Are All In

Red Sox fans are you excited for the season if not maybe this video from NESN will make you more ready! Just one more week until baseball begins.

Red Sox Land Two Players in Top 20 Jersey Sales

The top Jersey sales in 2010 are finally in and the Red Sox landed two players in the top 20. Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury landed on this list. Pedroia was number eight on list and Ellsbury’s no. 2 landed 16 on the list.

As far as team sales got the Red Sox finish second to the Yankees in all of baseball.

When ask about how Pedroia feels about being in the top sales he went on to say.

"It's cool," Pedroia said of seeing fans wear his number 15. "When we're playing at home at Fenway it's fun, because it seems like everybody in the whole stadium has one of our jerseys, and we all kind of look up there and see who it is. It just makes it fun."

They ask if he wore a jersey as a kid he replied saying that he had a Barry Bonds jersey. If you have ever read his book Born to Play:My Life in the Game than you would know that the California native was a huge fan of Bonds as a kid.

As for Ellsbury he was a fan of “the kid” Ken Griffey Jr. as all fans of baseball under the age of 30. Everyone grew up wearing Griffey’s jersey with our hat on backwards and so did Jacoby.

Ellsbury was extremely excited to see how many of his jerseys were sold in 2010 granted his injury pledged season.

"It just goes to show I'm blessed to have these great fans that go to the game and support me. It's exciting," he said. "It's always special. Here at Spring Training, just to see all the kids rolling in, wearing all the jerseys, supporting us, cheering, just seeing their excitement. When you step up to the plate and take the field, just seeing someone wearing your jersey is even more special.”

I predict that more players will be named to this list in 2011 with what all the players who were added to the roster.

Red Sox defeats Boston College in a one hitter

Today the Red Sox started spring training play. The Sox took on Boston College this morning and defeated them 6-0 in a one hit game. The only hit of the game come in the seventh inning by BC’s Jim Laufer.

The Red Sox carried a no hitter into the final inning using six different prospect players. Laufer’s hit came off of lefty Randy Williams, he hit a soft line drive hit and was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single into a double.

If you are looking at the Red Sox line up you would think this was going to be a regular season game as you have four regular season starters in this game. Those guys include Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Marco Scutaro and David Ortiz. The reason for putting these guys in action against a college team is to give them some extra at bats as all of the guys except Ortiz are coming off an injury pelage season.

In Youkilis’ first game as the full time third baseman for the Sox he was controlled the first inning. Youkilis had to test his ability to play third as BU’s Garret Smith hit strong hit that had the potential to be an extra base hit but Youkilis made an amazing diving play to throw him out at first. Then later in the inning Youkilis knocked out a three run homer into right field.

The starters only played only played three innings and the game also brought several familiar faces in Darnell McDonald, Ryan Kalish, Lars Anderson, and Josh Reddick

The Red Sox and Boston College first started playing each other in 1916 and this was this is the 21^st meeting and the 19^th straight year playing between the Red Sox and BC and the start of play for the year for the Sox.

Defense and Pitching or Offense and Offense? We got it all

What are the 2010 Boston Red Sox team are they a team of defense and pitching or are they an offensive team? Well at the start of the season everyone including the General Manager Theo Epstein was preaching that this season would be all about defense and pitching and then you have your fans who still believe the sox can be an offensive team. Well the past two days the sox have shown both one night we have poor pitching on the mound but we are slugging like crazy and the next day our bats was asleep but they proved they can win with both.

On Monday night our “ace” Josh Beckett took the mound against the jays, who he has struggled against in the past and it would not be any different. Beckett gave up nine hits, and eight runs in three innings pitched. He was only one of seven pitchers that made and appearance in a game that the final score was 13-12 with a Red Sox victory. The Bats was alive as the Sox had five players have a three hit game the best of the season. The red sox was lead by their off the bench captain Jason Varitek as he went 3-5 with 4 RBI and scored two runs for the sox. This was also his first three hit game before now full time catcher Victor Martinez joined the team. The Sox defense was not the best in this game but it didn’t give up any errors so you can’t really complain there.

Now Tuesday night’s game was completely different as starting pitcher Clay Buchholtz showed up to play and did just what the skipper wanted him to do pitch. This was truly a game of pitching and defense from the lowest paid starter on the staff. As he pitched eight innings of great baseball to only give up one run even though he did give up seven hits the defense helped him out. Buchholtz gave up his one run to the leadoff hitter for the Jays in the first inning and he threw shut out baseball after that it looked like the true ace of the staff. As for offense in this game well there wasn’t much as there was only two runs that crossed home plate as one was David Ortiz who was batted in by Jeremy Hermida and a pinch hit walk by Mike Lowell for Ortiz in the top of the eighth with two outs to bring home Dustin Pedroia. The bats were not great but they weren’t awful as we had seven hits as a team but we left 16 men stranded on base. With our bullpen stressed to the max and no one to call on in the ninth inning the skip had to call Ramon Ramirez to the mound to finish the game, which before Tuesday only had one major league save in his career. Ramirez surprisingly came in and successfully received the save with the help of the defense.

So with all of this being said who are the Red Sox this season? I feel it is still too soon to put a title on them just yet because they have showed some nights they can have a slug fest and all the bats are in order, then some nights it will be a classic pitcher’s duel. One thing is for certain if the bats and the pitching show up on the same night I feel sorry for whomever they facing that night, because this Sox team has showed it can be great.