Fenway Fables

In May, Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester will look back on the previous month and yell “April Fool’s!” or at least Sox fans hope.

Lester had another rough outing on the mound Monday as the Twins cruised to a 5-2 victory in their opening game at Target Field. Lester was wild again, throwing 48 of his 107 pitches for balls. When he wasn’t wild he was hittable, allowing nine hits and four runs over five innings.

History shows that Lester likes to turn April Fool’s Day into an entire month. He has started 14 games in April throughout his career and is 2-5 with a 5.08 ERA. Fantasy owners beware of selling this guy cheap. While he might cost you a few points in the beginning, Lester tends to breakout in the months following. The past two years he has went 28-10 in the months following April.

The Sox two runs came from a deep double (which was almost caught) to left field, scoring Kevin Youkilis from second. The other was a sacrifice fly by Dustin Pedroia. Overall, the atmosphere of the new outdoor stadium propelled the Twins to a big victory over a struggling pitcher.

Don’t be the fool, Lester will find his control and push 15 wins wins 200 strikeouts once again.

After losing their first three-game series to the New York Yankees, things got even worse for the Red Sox (1-2) on Friday night. They got off to an early 3-0 lead on a David Ortiz double and a J.D. Drew two-run homer. However, the Red Sox failed to hold the slim lead for the second consecutive game.

Despite Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield being the oldest player on the field, he out-dueled the Royals young-gun, 26-year-old Kyle Davies. Wakefield left the game in line for the win even after he gave up back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning. The home runs came off the bats of Royals’ Billy Butler and Rick Ankiel.

Ankiel wasn’t about to settle for just a solo home run. The Royals’ center fielder got greedy and smacked a broken-bat single into left field, which scored the game tying and go-ahead runs. The one-run lead proved to be insurmountable for the Red Sox and they lost the game 4-3. Their record is now 1-3 and they are tied for last place in the American League East.

Of course it is way to early to push the panic button, but the underlying problem with designated hitter David Ortiz will need to be addressed sooner rather than later. It is heart breaking to any Red Sox fan who has followed the club since their amazing 2004 World Series run. Any Sox follower knows that Ortiz proved to be one of the most clutch batters in Red Sox history after hitting two game-winners against the Yankees in the ‘04 ALCS.

Times have changed and players around the league are growing older. David Ortiz seems to be leading the pack. His early struggles last season lead to many questions from the media. Now, Ortiz faces these questions everyday, and after getting ejected in the fifth inning of Friday’s game, it is obvious the frustration is settling in. If the Red Sox continue this losing streak they will be forced to make some changes, and the first one will likely be Ortiz. If this does happen, it will be a painful day for every member of Red Sox Nation.

The Boston Red Sox opened the 2010 Major League Baseball season with a bang Sunday night after making a late-inning comeback  against the New York Yankees.

The Yankees got off to a quick 2-0 lead when catcher Jorge Posada and center fielder Curtis Granderson hit back-to-back home runs in the second inning. Any speculation about how Granderson would fit into the Yankees powerhouse lineup stopped abruptly when he homered in his first at-bat and followed it by making a catch while slamming into the green monster.

However,Kevin Youkilis, and Dustin Pedroia answered for the Red Sox. Youkilis hit a deep off-the-wall double off of C.C. Sabathia and eventually came in to score after a sacrifice fly by Adrian Beltre. Pitcher Josh Beckett continued to struggle and was pulled midway through the fifth inning. He allowed five runs and only recorded one strikeout.

Sabathia continued to cruise through the game allowing only the hit to Youkilis until the fifth inning, where he allowed three more hits and another earned run. The excited opening night crowd at Fenway was silent going into the sixth, with the score 5-2. After a Pedroia walk and Victor Martinez double to put men on second and third, Kevin Youkilis stepped into the batter’s box and took the form of a superhero. He tripled off the monster, driving in two runs and later scored on a Beltre single. The game was tied at 5 and the Red Sox bats were alive.

After struggling against Beckett, Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez got his first hit, doubling to left field in the seventh. A ground out from Robinson Cano scored another Yankee run and a single from Posada added their last. Heading into the seventh the Red Sox were trailing 7-5.

Yankees pitcher Chan Ho Park stepped to the mound and allowed a quick single to Macro Scutaro. After striking out Jacoby Ellsbury, who finished the game hitless, Pedroia came to bat once again. He crushed a pitch from Park over the monster and tied the game at 7. Youkilis then doubled for the second time. The stage was set for David “Big Papi” Ortiz to hit in the go-ahead run for the Sox. However, he was walked and held hitless for the night. Instead, it was two wild pitches that resulted in Youkilis scoring the run.

Red Sox center fielder Mike Cameron added one more run in the bottom of the eight to make the score 9-7 and give Jonathan Papelbon the chance for the save.

Papelbon did just that. The win belonged to Red Sox relief pitcher Hideki Ojamia (1-0). The loss credited to Chan Ho Park (0-1), and the save to Papelbon (1)

The Red Sox will play the Yankees again on Tuesday night.

Jon Papelbon is fresh off of his one year, $6.25 million deal but he’s recently come out and said he’d like to talk about a long term deal.  He admits there’s risks but then he also said he liked rolling the dice.  At this point, the hope is the Papelbon keeps putting up the numbers like he has the past few years and then everything will take care of itself.

Papelbon also gave a nod to his catcher even though he might not be with the Red Sox this year.  I like that and I hope the Red Sox do sign Veritek.  It just has to be at a fair price.

I can’t believe it’s the end of January already.  It’s cold, but it’s not to early to be thinking about softball and little league for the kids.  I know my son is anxious to try out his new baseball bat that we bought him over the holidays.  We got it at a great one stop source for baseball equipment, Baseball Rampage.

This morning, the Red Sox are on the outside looking in at the 2008 postseason, victims of a 3-1, Game 7 Rays victory that dashed the Sox’ hopes of returning to the World Series and defending their 2007 championship.

Tampa Bay’s talented upstarts had twice tried and failed to keep the Red Sox out of the winner’s column in Games 5 and 6. But in their third and final stab at it they rallied from a 1-0 deficit and did not allow the Sox a chance to recover. But they came close.

The Red Sox put eight baserunners on in the final four innings without plating a single one. The Rays employed five pitchers in the eighth alone, when four Red Sox batters reached and none came around to score. J. D Drew struck out with the bases loaded against pitcher No. 5, rookie David Price.

Rays starter Matt Garza outpitched Jon Lester for the second time this series, earning himself ALCS MVP honors in the process. While Lester was much improved from his Game 3 effort, Garza dazzled, holding the Red Sox to just two hits and one run in his seven-plus innings. Lester, staked to a 1-0 lead after Pedroia’s first-inning home run, handed the Rays the lead in the fifth on Rocco Baldelli’s RBI single, which plated Willy Aybar. Aybar added some insurance in the seventh with a solo home run.

A constant refrain in the Red Sox clubhouse this year was what a grind the 2008 season had been, which can’t be denied given the short offseason following last year’s World Series drive and then the early start to the season because of the trip to Tokyo.

That, significant injuries to David Ortiz (wrist), Josh Beckett (back, elbow, oblique), Mike Lowell (left thumb, right hip) and J. D Drew (back) and the midseason distraction that led to the Manny Ramirez trade caused more than a few members of the organization to point out that perhaps the team was fortunate just to have arrived at a Game 7, one win away from the World Series.

Baseball…It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.” -Bart Giamatti

Nine outs away from going six feet under for the season, the Red Sox showed much more than a pulse late in the ALCS Game 5 last night.

The Sox roared back to the prime of life, their 8-7 victory over the Rays at Fenway Park causing heartbeats to surge up and down the Eastern seaboard and sending a shiver of dread through the Tampa Bay area. Down 7-0 after 6 innings in Game 5 of an ALCS in which they trailed 3-1, the Red Sox staged the biggest comeback ever in an League Championship Series game by a winning team, putting a fresh spin on the meaning of a near-death experience in the process.

The Sox scored four times in the seventh, three coming home on a David Ortiz home run and added three more in the eighth to tie, two on a J.D Drew homer and the tying run on Coco Crisp’s two-out RBI single before Drew hit a walkoff RBI single in the ninth that literally caused Fenway to rock and sway.

The tone in the dugout before the Ortiz blast was not as down as it could have been, Crisp said, considering how close the Sox were to elimination.

Game 6 is on the schedule for tomorrow night in St. Petersburg, Fla., with Josh Beckett starting for the Sox opposite James Shields in an attempt to even the series and send it to a Game 7 on Sunday night at Tropicana Field. The Rays are still one win away from the World Series but momentum definitely slipped out of their grasp and into the Red Sox’ lap with the loss.

The Red Sox had been utterly punchless through six scoreless innings against Scott Kazmir (two hits, three walks, seven strikeouts), while Daisuke Matsuzaka struggled (four-plus innings, two walks, five hits, three home runs, five runs). The Rays pushed their lead to 7-0 in the seventh inning on B.J. Upton’s two-run double off of Jonathan Papelbon, who then settled in to get the game to Justin Masterson (1-0) for the ninth.

Red Sox starting pitching has gone from great in one game to gruesome in the next two. No surprise, the Sox are two losses from beginning their winter vacation.

Jon Lester’s surprisingly poor and ineffective start at home in Game 3 of the ALCS led directly to a 9-1 Red Sox loss yesterday. The Rays lead the best-of-seven series, 2-1.

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Tim Wakefield will get a chance tonight to turn the tide, with the unpredictable flight of his knuckleball the perfect image for the out-of-nowhere performance of Lester, who allowed eight hits and five runs (four earned) in 5 innings. The left-hander’s Fenway Park dominance this season (11-1, 2.49 ERA) meant squat on a day when the Rays jumped all over his offerings.

Tampa Bay scored the game’s first run on a second-inning groundout and pushed the lead to 5-0 in the third on B.J. Upton’s three-run home run and an Evan Longoria solo shot.

Rays starter Matt Garza thoroughly outpitched Lester, stifling a Red Sox lineup that looked thinner than ever with Jacoby Ellsbury going 0-for-3 from the leadoff spot and slumping David Ortiz turning in an 0-for-4 out of the No. 3 hole. Ellsbury (0-for-14) and Ortiz (0-for-10) are hitless in the series.

Daisuke Matsuzaka threw a Game 1 gem (seven scoreless innings, four hits), but Game 2 starter Josh Beckett (4 innings, eight runs, nine hits) and Lester have let the team down big-time. To have Lester be the culprit counts as a shocking development to a team that was hoping to get on a roll at home.

The Rays pitched and hit a lot better than OK. As a result, they have four more chances to do that just two more times.

Relatively speaking, the Red Sox starting pitching has been really bad the last two games. There are not that many opportunities remaining to turn that around. Wakefield will try to do just that tonight when he starts Game 4.

The pitcher every Sox fan hates to watch was up to his old tricks in the first inning last night at Tropicana Field. Daisuke Matsuzaka walked the bases loaded to open the American League Championship Series against the Tampa Bay Rays, and the groan that rippled across Red Sox Nation said it all.

Here we go again.

Then Matsuzaka recorded an out. And another. And another. And another. The frustration of what often felt like the worst 18-3 season in history was nowhere to be found. Acquired in part because of what he could do in big games, Matsuzaka was an assassin. And the BoSox needed it.

Dice-K didn’t allow a hit until the seventh, making Jed Lowrie’s fifth inning sacrifice fly stand as the Sox drew first blood and stole homefield advantage with a taut 2-0 victory over the Rays. Victory wasn’t assured until rookie Justin Masterson retired Rookie of the Year lock Evan Longoria on a double play grounder to end the eighth. Closer Jonathan Papelbon then stayed perfect in the postseason with a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.

But the story was Matsuzaka. He left after allowing consecutive hits to open the eighth, Tampa Bay’s third and fourth hits of the game. He struck out nine and escaped a two-on, none-out jam in the seventh.

The Rays finally recorded a hit in the seventh when Carl Crawford lined a clean single to right. They were still in the game at that point because Matsuzaka was matched nearly pitch for pitch by Rays starter James Shields, who limited the Sox to two runs and six hits through 7 innings, aided by some outstanding defense.

The Sox gave Matsuzaka the only run he’d need in the fifth, though Tampa Bay’s sterling glovework minimized the damage. Lowrie’s sacrifice fly scored Jason Bay, but Mark Kotsay was stranded at third when second baseman Akinori Iwamura smothered a Jason Varitek shot with the infield in, followed by shortstop Jason Bartlett’s excellent over-the-shoulder running catch of Jacoby Ellsbury’s bloop in short left.

Meanwhile, Matsuzaka was cruising. His biggest scare came in the seventh with runners at first and third and none out. In short order, Matsuzaka popped Dioner Navarro to left, struck out Gabe Gross and got Bartlett to ground to short. Inning over, 1-0 lead preserved.

The Sox tacked on a run in the eighth. Pedroia singled with one out to chase Shields. Two batters later Kevin Youkilis doubled off the glove of a sliding Crawford in left to plate the insurance run.

That made a winner of Matsuzaka, who was only frustrating to watch for those wearing Rays colors.

The Red Sox wanted to drink beer and champagne last night, not make a quiet and somber flight to Southern California. Jon Lester and Jed Lowrie became the latest Red Sox heroes to make wishes come true. Lowrie, the rookie shortstop who had struggled through September, shoved all that aside with a ninth-inning walkoff RBI single off Scot Shields that propelled the Red Sox past the Angels, 3-2, and into the AL Championship Series.  The next plane the Red Sox will board will be bound for St. Petersburg, Fla., tomorrow afternoon, and it will be a flight they will make willingly for what should be a bruising and highly entertaining best-of-seven series against their fiercest regular-season foes, the Tampa Bay Rays. The victory against the Angels gave the Sox a 3-1 Division Series win and prevented them from having to fly to LA for a deciding Game 5 on enemy territory. Dustin Pedroia, who snapped his 0-for-15 slump with an RBI double off Angels starter John Lackey that scored Ellsbury in the two-run fifth, wanted no part of a cross-country flight. Lowrie’s hit salvaged what would have been a bone-crushing loss to the Angels, who had created a shocking 2-2 tie in the top of the eighth inning. It also would have wasted the second superb postseason start in a row for Jon Lester (seven scoreless innings). Lester was outstanding, stifling any slim or substantial scoring opportunity the Angels gained. Tied at 2 entering the ninth, either team could have claimed momentum, and at first, it appeared the Angels had a stranglehold on it. Juan Rivera led off with a double and then pinch-runner Reggie Willits reached third with one out. Manager Mike Scioscia decided to call for the squeeze play, but Erick Aybar could not get the bunt down on a Manny Delcarmen pitch. Willits was caught halfway home and Varitek chased him all the way back to third, tag-tackling him with the ball bouncing out of his glove after the out was called.

As momentum shifts go, that one was seismic. Delcarmen got the final out, leaving the distinct impression that it was a matter of guessing who would come to the rescue in the bottom of the ninth. It was Lowrie, but Jason Bay set him up perfectly with his one-out ground-rule double past a diving Willits in right. He slid safely home for the winning run and the celebration was on, the flight delayed.

And Tampa Bay likely will prove tougher to overcome than the Angels, who fell to the Red Sox for the third time in a row in a Division Series.

Nation Notes: The pain was too much for Mike Lowell. Having him attempt to play was too painful and too damaging for the Red Sox. So after a consultation with doctors on the torn labrum in Lowell’s right hip yesterday, the third baseman was removed from the American League Division Series roster. That move likely (though not certainly) signals the end of the season for the third baseman, who will head into the offseason bound for surgery. Because he was taken off the roster in the middle of the series, Lowell will also not be available for the AL Championship Series, but he could be added to the World Series roster if he were to recover in time. That seems unlikely at this point, though. Lowell was replaced with infielder Gil Velazquez, 28, who had spent 11 years in the minor leagues before finally making his major league debut in September.

It’s still code red for the Angels, but they lived to play another night, after inching by the Red Sox in 12 innings, 5-4, in Game 3 of the Division Series last night at Fenway Park.

Erick Aybar’s RBI single off of Javier Lopez was the fatal blow as Los Angeles snapped the Red Sox’ record 11-game postseason winning streak against the Angels and closed the series deficit to 2-1. The Sox still are one win away from advancing to the ALCS against either the Tampa Bay Rays or Chicago White Sox, but if they lose tonight, the series shifts back to Anaheim, Calif., for a decisive Game 5 on Wednesday night.

The Red Sox had, then wasted, their late chances. They had two on with one out and the bases loaded with two outs in the 10th against Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez, but the threat ended with a Jed Lowrie flyout to right. Coco Crisp reached second base in the 11th with a single and a stolen base, but Pedroia stranded him there with a groundout. And in the 12th, David Ortiz drew a leadoff walk, but Kevin Youkilis (fly ball to center), Jason Bay (strikeout) and Alex Cora (hard groundout to third) failed to get him in. Jered Weaver tossed two scoreless innings of relief to earn the win.

Prior to the 12th, the Sox bullpen pitched six scoreless innings, salvaging an off night for starter Josh Beckett, who gave up four runs on nine hits in five difficult frames. Beckett was a shell of his 2007 October self in his 2008 postseason debut. His outing was the shortest of his postseason career, and he gave up more hits than he has in any playoff game. Beckett needed 30 pitches to get through the first inning, allowing one run. The big damage came on a pair of home runs by Mike Napoli, whose two-run blast in the third tied the game at 3. His solo shot in the fifth put the Angels ahead, 4-3.

The Red Sox did tie the game in the fifth, when Youkilis doubled in Jacoby Ellsbury (double). One walk later, Angels starter Joe Saunders was out of the game. He lasted just 4 2/3 innings, allowing four runs and four walks just like his counterpart.

In the end, the Angels got a second life in their final chance. Tonight, they can put the pressure on the Sox, who do not want to go back to the West Coast. Game 1 starters Jon Lester and John Lackey will square off again tonight.