The Boston Red Sox welcome the hobbling Detroit Tigers to Boston for a 3-game weekend set at Fenway Park.  While the Red Sox are getting healthier by the day, the Tigers are still trying to recover from a recent slew of injuries that have caused the Tigers to lose 13 of their last 16 games.

Jon Lester has pitched well lately (he struck out a career-high 13 Mariners in a 5-1 loss last week), but he has lost his last 2 starts.  He hopes to avoid a 3rd consecutive loss for the 1st time in his career tonight.  Overall, Lester is 11-5 with a 2.92 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP.  He is 6-2 at Fenway Park with a 2.84 ERA, but he lost his last start at Fenway despite giving up just 3 ER in 8 innings against the Texas Rangers on July 18th.

The Red Sox are 58-44 and they trail the Yankees by 7.5 games in the AL East race and the Rays by 5.5 games in the AL Wild Card race. Josh Beckett has made 2 effective starts since coming off the DL and he is looking forward to the upcoming 7-game homestand:  “The way we ended the road trip, we can take that back with us and get to where we’re comfortable.  We’ve still got more guys to get healthy, but a lot of us are coming back now.”  Let’s hope the Sox have a run in them – they certainly have a lot of work to do to catch the Yankees and Rays…

While Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz and Victor Martinez have all come back and performed well for the Red Sox, now it’s time for Dustin Pedroia, Mike Cameron & Jacoby Ellsbury to show that they can stay healthy and be productive during the final 2 months of the season.

FYI – Beckett stands to pick up his 1st win since coming off the DL after Marco Scutaro’s Grand Slam to left field broke a 3-3 tie in the top of the 8th innings.  Yeehaw!!!  What a great way to end the 10-game road trip with a 3-game sweep of the Angels.  Beckett threw 112 pitches in 7 innings, yielding just 3 ER on 5 hits and 1 walk.  Even better, Beckett seemed to get stronger as the game went on.  He gave up 2 runs in the 2nd inning, but after giving up a lone run on a sac fly in the bottom of the 5th inning, Beckett retired the last 7 batters he faced.

John Lackey kept his former club in check for a 2nd time in 2010, and the Red Sox pushed across 4 late runs in order to pull off the 4-2 win over the Angels in Anaheim.

The Good — Lackey matched Jered Weaver pitch for pitch, giving up just 2 ER on 7 hits and 1 walk in 7 1/3 innings.  He struck out 4 while throwing a season-high 124 pitches to earn the win.  Despite a bloated 1.49 WHIP and 4.26 ERA, Lackey still has a respectable 10-5 record on the season.

The Good – Jed Lowrie and Marco Scutaro at the top of the lineup.  Lowrie had 2 hits and he gave the Red Sox their 1st lead with a 2-run double in the 7th inning.  Scutaro had 3 hits and scored twice.  Even Darnell McDonald adding some spark to the bottom of the order in the 9-hole – 2 hits, a walk and a run scored.

The Good — Adrian Beltre has been relatively quiet on the west coast road trip, but he came through with a clutch RBI double in the 8th inning to extend the Red Sox lead to 3-1.  The same could be said for David Ortiz up until his arrival in Anaheim.  Big Papi had 2 home runs in Monday night’s win and he had 2 great late-inning at-bats in last night’s win.  He walked and scored in the 8th inning on Beltre’s double and then his single in the 9th inning allowed Scutaro to score an insurance run when Howie Kendrick committed an error on the play.

The Good — Daniel Bard & Jonathan Papelbon – Manager Terry Francona used the Bard-Papelbon combo once again to preserve the win.  Bard issued a walk, but got the job done in the 8th inning.  And Papelbon worked a perfect 9th inning for his 24th save.  These guys are getting so much work this year, Francona has already indicated that he is giving both relievers the day off on Wednesday so that they will have 2 days off before the upcoming weekend series against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park.

Josh Beckett looks to make a 2nd good start since coming off the DL in this afternoon’s series finale.  The Red Sox currently trail 3-2 – Beckett has given up 3 ER on 5 hits and 1 walk through 5 innings.

The Red Sox recovered from a rough 4-game series against the Rangers at Fenway Park over the weekend to pull off a nice 2-1 win over the A’s in Oakland.

The Good — Daisuke Matsuzaka – 6 2/3 quality innings allowing just 2 hits and 2 walks while making only 89 pitches.  The lone A’s run came off of a solo home run by Rajai Davis.

The Good — Daniel Bard – 20 holds?!  Gotta love Bard’s 2010 performance.  Bard has been the Red Sox most consistent reliever all season, and he may even be their “pitching MVP” at this point of the season.  His miniscule 0.84 WHIP and 1.80 ERA are incredible.

The Good — Jonathan Papelbon – Papelbon has been flying under the radar screen this season.  He now has 21 saves and a solid 1.03 WHIP.  The 3.23 ERA is a tad high, but that reflects a few bad outings where he got uncharacteristically lit up.  He worked a perfect 9th inning with 1 K to preserve the Red Sox 1-run win.

The Good — Adrian Beltre – This guy keeps on raking – 3 hits including a solo home run with 2 outs in the 4th inning that proved to be the game-winner.  He is hitting .333 with 15 HR’s, 58 RBI’s and 46 runs scored.  Think the Red Sox wished they had inked him to a longer deal now?  He is going to command a longer deal and some big $$$ this off-season, and may actually be worth it.

The Bad — the rest of the Red Sox lineup – just 5 hits for the rest of the team.  Not good.

Stat You May Have Missed — Leading 2-1 in the bottom of the 7th inning, Manager Terry Francona called upon Daniel Bard to end the scoring threat after Dice-K had allowed 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs.  Bard came through by forcing Gabe Gross to pop out weekly to Beltre at 3rd base.

Tim Wakefield looks to rebound from a 6-run 1st inning in his last start against the Rangers to give the Red Sox a chance to make it 2 wins in a row.  Wakefield’s time in the starting rotation is clearly numbered with the returns of Clay Buchholz and Josh Beckett this week.

Ouch – it was a miserable weekend for the Red Sox against the Rangers at Fenway Park.  3 tough losses – now losers of 7 of their last 10 games.  The Red Sox find themselves 6.5 games behind the Yankees for 1st place in the AL East and 3.5 games behind the Rays for the AL Wild Card lead.  Boy do they need to get back Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz, Victor Martinez, Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury in a hurry.  If they can stay within striking distance until those 5 players return, there is still some hope for the 2010 Red Sox.  If they continue to lose ground, however, it is going to be an uphill climb for this squad.

While the pitching wasn’t good in the 1st 2 games of the series, the bats deserted the club all weekend.  In the 4-game set, the Red Sox scored just a total of 11 runs.  Their only win in the series came on Saturday night when Kevon Youkilis miraculously led the team to a thrilling 3-2 win in 11-innings.  Youkilis drove in Marco Scutaro with the tying run on a double in the 9th inning and then drove in Scutaro again with a sacrifice fly in the 11th inning for the win.  The high not for the game though was the pitching of John Lackey.  Lackey limited the Rangers to just 2 ER on 7 hits and 2 walks in 7 innings.  He had 3 K’s and he kept the hot-hitting Rangers lineup in check for most of the night.

The Red Sox managed just 5 hits in support of Jon Lester.  They scored single runs in the 2nd inning on Adrian Beltre’s RBI double and in the 9th inning on Mike Cameron’s solo home run.  Other than that, those were the only scoring threats for the Red Sox.  Lester pitched 8 innings, but he was off his game with 9 hits and 3 walks.  He worked out of jams throughout the game to limit the Rangers to just 4 runs (3 earned).  Any other night, the Red Sox win that game, but C.J. Wilson kept striking out the Red Sox – 10 times to be exact – and it was all she wrote.

Now it’s off to the west coast for a HUGE 10-game road trip for the Red Sox.  The season could be riding on the line as the Red Sox take on the A’s in Oakland for 3 games before facing off against the Marines in Seattle for 4 games.  The Red Sox finish off the 10-game odyssey with 3 games against the Angels in Anaheim next week.  As of now it looks like Buchholz will start on Wednesday and Beckett will start on Friday (giving Lester an extra day off), so hopefully will the starting rotation back intact, we’ll see some more consistent pitching – and more wins – over the next few weeks…

Not the way the Red Sox wanted to start the 2nd half – with a 7-2 disappointing loss to the Rangers at Fenway Park.  It really makes you wonder if the Red Sox will be able to hold on and stay close enough before the big guns get back.

A 6-run 1st inning did in Tim Wakefield.  8 hits?! 7 runs?! Not good.

The Red Sox bats were not much better – only 6 hits and 2 walks.  The 2 runs came on solo home runs by J.D. Drew and Bill Hall.

Let’s hope Felix Doubront can right the ship tonight in Game of the weekend series.

The Red Sox open up the 2nd half of the season against the red-hot 1st place Texas Rangers.

The Red Sox trail the New York Yankees by 5 games for 1st place in the AL East and they trail the Tampa Bay Rays by 3 games for the AL Wild Card lead.

Tim Wakefield takes the bump for the Red Sox tonight at Fenway Park.

Clay Buchholz, who was supposed to start game 2 of the Rangers series on Friday night, will make 1 minor league rehab start before he returns to the major league level.  Felix Doubront will start in his place.  John Lackey will pitch on Saturday against newly-acquired ace Cliff Lee, while Jon Lester will pitch on Sunday.

Let’s hope the Red Sox can cool off the Rangers as soon as possible.

It wasn’t the best performance by Red Sox all-stars, but it wasn’t awful either.  The NL defeated the AL 3-1 in the 2010 Midsummer Classic All-Star Game, breaking a 13-year winless drought in the process.

Jon Lester worked a perfect 6th inning for the American League.

David Ortiz was 1 for 2 with a single and a strikeout, but he was involved in an odd play in the 9th inning.  Trailing 3-1, Ortiz led off the inning with a single.  Should Yankees Manager Joe Girardi have pinch-run for Ortiz with the only AL player left on the bench – Alex Rodriguez?  One out later, that question was answered, as Marlon Byrd made a spectacular fielding and throwing play on a flare hit to shallow right field.  In Ortiz’s defense, it was tough-to-tell if Byrd was going to catch the ball.  In the end, he came up just short, but made a great spinning throw to get Ortiz with a force out at 2nd base.  That was the 2nd out of the inning and essentially ended the scoring chance for the AL.  If Rodriguez was in the game, there are no guarantees that he makes it to 2nd base ahead of Byrd’s throw.  But I would have made the switch if I was Girardi – makes you wonder if A-Rod is nit fully healthy…

Adrian Beltre struck out in his lone at-bat of the game.

Bring on the 2nd half at Fenway Park on Thursday – I cannot wait!!!

The Red Sox defeated the Blue Jays 3-2 on Sunday to win the rubber game of the 3-game weekend series in Toronto.  At 51-37, the Red Sox trail the Yankees by 5 games for 1st place in the AL East and the Rays by 3 games for the AL Wild Card lead.

The Good — Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched well until he ran out of steam in the 7th inning.  He ended up giving up 2 ER on 6 hits over 6 inning.  More importantly, he did not walk a single batter as he struck out 5.  He kept his pitch count low – 88 pitches – but Manager Terry Francona was forced to go with Daniel Bard after Aaron Hill’s 2-run home run in the 7th inning cut the Red Sox lead to 3-2.

The Good – Daniel Bard – there might not be another better set-up man in baseball today.  Bard pitched 2 scoreless innings to preserve the 1-run lead in Toronto on Sunday.  He allowed just 1 base runner.  Check out his 0.82 WHIP and 1.90 ERA!

The Good – Jonathan Papelbon – 20 saves at the break?!  Gotta love it.  He’s had a few rough outings, but overall, he is still one of the best in the game – 1.11 WHIP; 3.50 ERA.

The Good – Darnell McDonald made his lone hit count – a 2-run home run that gave the Red Sox the 2-0 lead.  David Ortiz – his solo shot proved to be the game winner.

Assuming the Red Sox get most of their injured players back soon – Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz, Victor Martinez, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jason Varitek, Dustin Pedroia -  it should make for an interesting 2nd half.  With the Red Sox, Rays and Yankees all within 5 games of each other, 1 team is sure going to be pretty pissed off when they don’t make the playoffs.  Let’s hope it’s not the good guys hanging their heads on October 3rd…

After a brutal start to the season, the Red Sox found themselves staring down double-digit deficits to both the Rays and Yankees in the AL East race.  But it never got the team down, and after a beautiful stretch of games in late May and through the entire month of June, the Red Sox found themselves back in the thick of it – even taking over the AL Wild Card lead for a short period.  But the injuries finally caught up to them and a bad start to this week has left the team frustrated and dejected.  A 4-game skid has left the Red Sox trailing the Yankees by 5 games in the AL East and the Rays by 3 games in the AL Wild Card race.  The Red Sox need to take at least 2 of 3 from the Blue Jays in Toronto this weekend in order to gain some momentum back heading into the All-Star Break.  Jon Lester looks to move head of Clay Buchholz for the team lead in wins with his 11th win of the season.  He is also second behind Buchholz with a 2.76 ERA, but he leads the squad with a 118 strikeouts.

Here’s a quick injury update on Clay Buchholz & Josh Beckett.

Buchholz off the mound in St. Petersburg this week for the 1st time since he injured his left hamstring in Colorado.  He threw 44 pitches in an “aggressive” side session and all signs point to a positive return for the righty.  He will continue to run and do his agility work while the team is in Boston and he will likely pitch the 2nd game after the break at Fenway Park next week.  Buchholz had this to say — “I feel pretty good.  We’re going in the right direction.  It was good just to get the feel of it.  I felt fine throwing [on] flat ground, so I had a pretty good idea that I’d feel pretty good.”

Beckett pitched a simulated game this week (4 innings) and will start for Triple-A Pawtucket on Sunday.  He is scheduled to make 1 more minor league start after that, and then he will rejoin the team on their west coast road trip to start against the A’s in Oakland on July 21st or the Mariners in Seattle on July 22nd.  Good news Sox fans!  Beckett had this to say — “I’m ready to get back to pitching here.  That’s the goal.  I feel like I had good stuff today, and that’s kind of what we’re trying to get to.  Repeating the delivery s definitely something we’ve been working on.  We’re going to push this thing until we can do that.”