It was a busy day for the Red Sox on Thursday – not all of it good.

The Red Sox welcomed reliever Billy Wagner into the clubhouse just 11 months removed from having Tommy John elbow surgery.  After thinking that he may never pitch again, Wagner finds himself joining the Red Sox and one of the best bullpens in baseball in the thick of the playoff hunt.  Wagner waived his no-trade clause with Mets in order to consummate the deal.  In return, the Red Sox agreed to decline the club’s option for the 2010 MLB season and agreed not to file an arbitration claim with Wagner after the season ends.  If a team files arbitration, if Wagner were to sign with another club, that club would owe the Red Sox 2 compensatory draft picks.  Wagner is looking for a full-time closer’s job in 2009, and the Red Sox won’t need one with the dominant Jonathan Papelbon fully entrenched in that role.  Wagner had this to say about the rumblings that Papelbon was not happy with his arrival: “I talked to him quite a bit.  Everything was so blown out of proportion.  We’re fine.  I understand he’s got a lot of close friends.  They’ve been doing a great job.  They’ve got the best bullpen in the American League and here you are taking a chance on a 38-year-old man coming over within 11 months of Tommy John surgery.”

The Red Sox hope that Wagner can add some depth to a pitching staff that has seen the recent departures of Justin Masterson, John Smoltz and Brad Penny.  The Red Sox traded Masterson to acquire Victor Martinez from the Indians; the Red Sox released Smoltz after he refused to pitch in the bullpen; and the Red Sox waived Penny once they realized that Tim Wakefield was healthy enough to make it through the rest of the 2009 MLB schedule.  In 24 starts for the Red Sox, Penny was largely inconsistent with a 7-8 record and a hefty 5.61 ERA and 1.53 WHIP.  Penny had only won 1 game since his win on June 17th.  Not good.

The Red Sox failed to pull off the 4-game sweep of the White Sox on Thursday night at Fenway Park, as the White Sox roughed up Junichi Tazawa in the 9-5 win.  Tazawa gave up all 9 ER in just 4 innings – 10 hits, 1 walk and 1 hit batsman.  But the real story was shortstop Nick Green.  Green made his major league pitching debut to give the Red Sox bullpen some rest in the blow-out loss.  Green threw 35 pitches in scoreless 8th and 9th innings.  He did not allow a hit, but walked 3 batters.  He was clocked hitting 90 MPH on 2 fastballs during his outing.  Pretty impressive.  J.D. Drew hit 2 solo home runs and Alex Gonzalez hit a home run for the 2nd straight game.

The Red Sox loss cut their lead in the AL Wild Card race to just 1.5 games over the Rangers and 3.5 games over the Rays.  The Red Sox still trail the Red Sox by 3 games in the AL East race.

It hasn’t been the best of years for David “Big Papi” Ortiz, but he had reason – 2 in fact – to celebrate in Wednesday night’s 3-2 over the White Sox at Fenway Park.  Big Papi hit 2 solo home runs in the game – the 1st tied the game at 1 in the 2nd inning and the 2nd was a walk-off bomb to deep right field that gave the Red Sox the win.  The game-winning shot was a no-doubter as he raised his arms in celebration just after he crushed the ball.

Ortiz has had to deal with poor 2009 play, a benching by Manager Terry Francona because of the poor play, and the fallout from being identified as one of the 103 MLB players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in the anonymous drug-testing that occurred during the 2003 MLB schedule.  And even though Big Papi is still only hitting .227 on the year, his good 2nd half has made his other numbers look OK.  He now has 22 HR’s, 77 RBI’s and 59 runs scored in 117 games played.  A far cry from the 2004-6 stretch that saw him hit home runs and drive in massive amounts of runs (41 HR’s, 139 RBI’s; 47 HR’s, 148 RBI’s; and 54 HR’s, 137 RBI’s), but still much better than the 1st half of the season that saw him hit below .200 until June 10th.  Big Papi had this to say about his role in the win:  “Victor, man, he just pushed me for every at-bat.  He got in my face and started screaming at me.  I liked it.  It got me in the mood.”

After Ramon Ramirez allowed the White Sox to tie the game in the 8th inning on Scott Podsednik’s solo home run, Daniel Bard came on to pitch a perfect 1 1/3 innings to earn his 1st win of his career.  After struggling of late, Bard struck out 3 of the 4 batters that he faced.

The Red Sox also got a great outing out of Tim Wakefield who had been on the DL since July 8th with a sore back.  Wakefield needed only 94 pitches to get through 7 innings.  He gave up only 1 run on 6 hits and 1 walk and would have gotten the win if not for Ramirez’ blown save.  This is good news for Red Sox nation as Brad Penny (7-8, 5.61 ERA, 1.53 WHIP) had been largely inconsistent for the Red Sox in 2009.  The Red Sox will go the rest of the way with the following rotation – Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Tim Wakefield and Junichi Tazawa.

The Red Sox are now back at 20 games over .500 – 73-53.  They trail the Yankees by 6 games in the AL East race, but hold a2.5 games lead aover the Rangers and a 4.0 games lead over the Rays in the AL Wild Card race.

Crazier things have happened, but believe it or not, the 20-11 Yankees win over the Red Sox on Friday night at Fenway Park wasn’t as much of a blow out as one might think.  While the Yankees blasted Brad Penny and 4 Red Sox relievers for 20 runs (19 earned) on 23 hits and 5 walks, the Red Sox themselves had plenty of chances with their 12 hits, 5 walks and 11 runs scored.  So should Manager Terry Francona be on the hot seat for pulling his starters in the 5th inning?

The Yankees blew the game open with 6 runs in the 5th inning, increasing their lead from 6-1 to 12-1.  Now granted, 11 runs seems like a lot, but with a Red Sox lineup capable of scoring big clumps of runs in short spans, and with 15 outs still to play with, wouldn’t it have been more prudent for Francona to leave his starters in?  Victor Martinez was pulled after 3 at-bats, and Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay and J.D. Drew were each pulled after just 2 at-bats.  In the bottom of the 6th inning, the Red Sox had the bases loaded and nobody out, but only came across with 1 run.  In the bottom of the 7th inning, the Red Sox had the bases loaded and only 1 out, and didn’t score at all.  Would things have been different if all the starters were still in?  Likely not, but the team just had an off day this past Monday and had been playing great coming off of a 3-game sweep of the Blue Jays – scoring 24 runs in the series.  Let ‘em play I say.  Plus it also sends the early message that the game is over.  In this Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, you can never take anything for granted.  A grand slam in the 6th and 7th innings – though far-fetched – could have made the game a ballgame once again.  As Derek Jeter said – - “That was an uncomfortable 20 to whatever it was game, because you get a couple of guys on base and you pepper that wall and it could be a whole new game.”  Francona should listen and think about that quote the next time his team falls behind big…

That being said, the Yankees were on fire all game long – Hideki Matsui hit 2 home runs and had 7 RBI’s; Alex Rodriguez went 4 for 4 with 1 RBI and 2 runs scored; Melky Cabrera went 4 for 6 with 2 RBI’s and 2 runs scored; Mark Teixeira went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s and 3 runs scored; and Derek Jeter went 3 for 6 with 2 RBI’s and 3 runs scored.  Crazy good.

Mike Lowell went 3 for 5 with 2 RBI’s and 2 runs scored, including 1 home run.  David Ortiz went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI’s and 2 runs scored.  Jacoby Ellsbury went 1 for 4 with 2 RBI’s and 2 runs scored.

Brad Penny was just bad – 8 ER, 10 hits and 1 walk in 4 innings.  Michael Bowden, just called up from Triple-A, was even worse – 7 ER, 8 hits and 3 walks in just 2 innings.  Ouch.

Junichi Tazawa will look to stymie the Yankees offense on Saturday afternoon against A.J. Burnett at Fenway Park…

J.D. Drew had a career night in the win.  Drew went 4 for 4 with 2 home runs, 3 RBI’s and 2 runs scored.  Drew tied the game up with his solo HR in the 3rd inning and then increased the Red Sox to 4-1 with his 2-run shot the next inning.  Victor Martinez also hit his 20th home run of the 2009 MLB schedule in the 7th inning and Jacoby Ellsbury continued his hot hitting by going 2 for 5 to raise his batting average to .300.

The Red Sox have won 7 of their last 10 games, but still trail the AL-East leading Yankees by 6.5 games.  This weekend should go a long in determining whether or not the Red Sox will still be competing for the AL East title into September.  The Red Sox host the Yankees in a big weekend series at Fenway Park.  Anything short of a sweep will make it hard for the Red Sox to make a serious run at the division.  The Red Sox still lead the Texas Rangers by 1 game in the AL Wild Card race.  Brad Penny starts it all off against Andy Petitte on Friday night.

Just when everyone was getting ready to count out the Red Sox, Clay Buchholz outduels Roy Halladay 6-1, and the Red Sox take back the AL Wild Card lead over the Texas Rangers by a game.  The Red Sox roughed up Halladay for 5 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks in just 5 innings of work.  Halladay needed 103 pitches to labor through the 5 innings – suffering his 6th loss of the 2009 MLB schedule.  The Red Sox got off to a quick start on a David Ortiz solo home run and an Alex Gonzalez RBI single in the 2nd inning to give the Red Sox an early 2-0 lead.  Jacoby Ellsbury tripled in Gonzalez in the 4th inning to increase the lead to 3-0.  After the Blue Jays chipped into the lead with a run in the 4th inning, the Red Sox answered right back with Jason Bay’s 2-run HR in the 5th inning.

By that time, Clay Buchholz was in a nice groove.  Buchholz pitched 6 innings of 1-run ball, allowing just 6 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 4.  The bullpen did the rest – Ramon Ramirez with a scoreless 7th inning with 2 K’s; Hideki Okajima with a scoreless 8th inning with 1 K; and with Takashi Saito striking out the side in a perfect 9th inning.

At 17 games over .500, it is incredible that the Red Sox still trail the Yankees by 7 games.  It would go a long way if the Red Sox can finish of the sweep of the Blue Jays in Toronto heading into the weekend series against the Yankees at home at Fenway Park.  Jon Lester takes the bump tonight in Toronto, and the Red Sox tentative starting rotation for the weekend looks like this – - Brad Penny, Junichi Tazawa and Josh Beckett.  The Yankees counter with Andy Petitte, A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia – - ouch…

For a short while there, it looked like Manny Delcarmen was going to be the latest scapegoat for a Red Sox loss.  Delcarmen had replaced starter Brad Penny in the top of the 7th inning with the Red Sox leading 5-3.  After a leadoff double, Delcarmen retired the next 2 batters, but then gave up back-to-back RBI hits to Placido Polanco and Marcus Thames that tied the game at 5.  Ouch – would the Red Sox fail to hold another late-inning lead and see their losing streak hit 7 games?

The answer soon came one half inning later as a pair of J.D. Drew and Casey Kotchman singles created a 1st and 3rd one out opportunity for the Red Sox in the bottom half of the inning.  Nick Green delivered a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Drew with the go-ahead run.  Ramon Ramirez, who had gotten Delcarmen out of his 7th inning jam by getting Carlos Guillen to pop out, got 2 outs in the 8th inning, and then Manager Terry Francona called upon closer Jonathan Papelbon to do the rest – a 4-out save spanning the 8rth and 9th innings to give the Red Sox the much-needed win.  It was Papelbon’s 28th save of the 2009 MLB schedule.

Brad Penny pitched a solid game just when the Red Sox needed it most.  Penny went 6 innings, giving up just 3 ER on 6 hits and 1 walk.  He only needed an efficient 93 pitches to get through the 6th inning – one of his lowest pitch counts of the season.

And the Red Sox bats finally came to life against Edwin Jackson.  Dustin Pedroia crushed a 2-run home run to left field to give the Red Sox an ealry 2-0 1st inning lead.  In the 2nd inning, Nick Green hit a solo shot and David Ortiz drove home Jacoby Ellsbury with an RBI single.  Just like that, the Red Sox led 4-0.  After the Tigers cut the lead to 4-3 with runs in the 4th and 5th innings, Jason Bay gave the Red Sox a little cushion with a solo home run in the bottom of the 5th inning.  All in all, the Red Sox tallied 12 hits and 2 walks, a major improvement from what the Red Sox offense generated in New York.

While this doesn’t mean that the Red Sox are going to run off a 10-game winning streak and take over the AL East race, it is a step in the right direction.  The Red Sox picked up a game on the Yankees who lost to the Blue Jays as well as a game on the Rays who lost to the Angels. The Red Sox were back in the wild card lead with the Rangers idle on Monday night.

John Smoltz’s short-lived tenure with the Boston Red Sox is officially over.  Smoltz gave up 8 earned runs on 9 hits and 4 walks (including 2 HR’s) over 3 1/3 innings, as the Red Sox lost the series opener in the Bronx 13-6.  The Red Sox designated Smoltz for assignment today.  Wow what a disaster with the Smoltz experiment.  And not that Penny is pitching all that great, but it is a good thing that the GM Theo Epstein and the Red Sox didn’t deal Brad Penny before the trading deadline.  Smoltz ended up making just 8 starts for the Red Sox – he had a 1.70 WHIP and a 8.32 ERA.  Plain awful and it could signal the end of the great pitcher’s career in the bug leagues at the age of 42.

Billy Traber also had a rough outing against the Yankees on Thursday night – 3 2/3 innings, 5 ER, 9 hits and 1 walk – and he too was designated for assignment today.  The Red Sox called up Japanese hurler Junichi Tazawa from Triple-A Pawtucket.  In 18 starts at the Double-A level this season, Tazawa had 9 wins with a 2.57 ERA.  The organization had just bumped Tazawa to the Triple-A level where he made 2 starts.  Although he lost both games, he had a solid 2.38 ERA.  It is unclear whether the Red Sox will move Tazawa to the bullpen or keep him in the starting rotation until Tim Wakefield returns from the DL.

Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira and Jorge Posada each had 3 hits for the Yankees, while Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher and Melky Cabrera each had 2 hits.  The only players with multi-hits for the Red Sox were Dustin Pedroia and Mike Lowell.  Pedroia and Casey Kotchman each hit home runs in the loss.  The Red Sox blew numerous chances early against Joba Chamberlain and the Yankees.  Chamberlain needed 108 pitches to labor through 5 innings.  He gave up 6 hits and issued 7 walks – 13 runners in 5 innings! – but the Red Sox could only manage 4 runs.  At least 2 Red Sox batters reached base against Chamberlain in each of the 5 innings, but Chamberlain ended threats withback-to-back flyouts with 2 on and only 1 out in the 1st inning; back-to-back strikeouts with 2 on and 1 out in the 2nd inning; a David Ortiz double-play in the 3rd inning, and back-to-back strikeouts with the bases loaded and only 1 out in the 5th inning.  Not a good conversion rate…

The Yankees opened a 3 1/2 game lead up over our Red Sox – come on Sox!  No pressure on Josh Beckett tonight – we need our ace to out-duel A.J. Burnett in tonight’s match-up, or it could be a long weekend in NYC.  Since the Yankees shelled Beckett for 8 runs back in April, Beckett defeated the Yankees in May and June by allowing just 3 ER over 12 innings pitched.

The team that gets the big, clutch hits will runners on base, usually wins, and that’s exactly what happened in the Red Sox 6-4 loss to the Rays on Wednesday night.  Brad Penny served up 2-run home runs to Carlos Pena in the 2nd inning and Carl Crawford in the 3rd inning, and a solo shot to Pat Burrel in the 6th inning, and the Rays took advantage of situations when runners were on base.  On the other side of the ball, the Red Sox home runs – from Jason Bay in the 2nd inning and Victor Martinez in the 6th inning – were both solo home runs.  When the Red Sox did get runners on base for good scoring chances, the Red Sox came through with RBI groundouts – from Jed Lowrie in the 7th inning and Kevin Youkilis in the 8th inning – instead of RBI hits that would have kept rallies going.

And so the story goes.  Coming off of a weekend series sweep in Baltimore, the Red Sox were confident going into Tampa.  But they let a 2-0 lead slip away in the opener and never got into a groove in Wednesday night’s finale.  If Penny could have avoided serving up the long ball, the Red Sox might have had a chance.  But he didn’t, and the 3-run lead was just too much to overcome.  Manny Delcarmen gave the Rays an insurance run by surrendering a solo HR to Jason Bartlett in the 7th inning and by then, the Rays were in control with a 6-3 lead.  For the 2nd night in a row, the Red Sox managed just 7 hits.

The Red Sox have little time to get out of their Florida funk.  The Red Sox open up a big 4-game series against the Yankees in New York tonight.  Trailing the Yankees by 2.5 games, this is a HUGE series for the Red Sox.  A split would be just fine, but losing 3 of 4 or getting swept would be disastrous.  We’ll keep you posted of any late-breaking news before tonight’s series opener at the New Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-2 in 13 innings courtesy of Evan Longoria’s 2nd home run of the game, a 2-run shot off of Takashi Saito.  Longoria had tied the game at 2 when he hit a leadoff home run off of Daniel Bard to start the bottom of the 8th.  The same day we write a glowing spot on Bard’s ascent in the major leagues, he goes out and has his worst outing of the year in the bright spotlight against the feisty, defending-A.L. pennant Rays.

Jon Lester did his job, going 6+ innings, allowing just 1 ER on 3 hits and 2 walks.  He struck out 10 Rays on the night.  But Bard struggled against the Rays, serving up an RBI single to Jason Bartlett in the 7th inning and then Longoria’s game-tying home run to lead off the 8th.  Overall, Bard recorded just 2 outs over the 7th and 8th innings, giving up 1 ER on 2 hits and 2 walks.

The Red Sox offense wasn’t great, managing just 7 hits against 6 Rays’ pitchers over 13 innings of play.  The Red Sox never managed any real threats, scoring runs on solo home runs by Kevin Youkilis in the 2nd inning and Dustin Pedroia in the 6th inning.  The team stranded 14 players and the Red Sox bullpen couldn’t make the 2-0 lead stand.

Definitely a very frustrating loss for the Red Sox to open the 2-game Rays series.  Now the Red Sox must count on Brad Penny to even up the series against Rays fireballer David Price (now a starter for the Rays).  Penny has looked good as of late, while Price has been inconsistent (giving up at least 5 ER in 5 of his last 8 starts).  Let’s hope the Red Sox bats show up earlier and more often tonight in Tampa.  Otherwise, it could be long flight to New York in anticipation of the big 4-games series against the Yankees this weekend at the New Yankee Stadium.

The Red Sox free fall continues, even at Fenway Park, but at least they mustered enough energy to pull off the dramatic 8-5 win on Thursday afternoon at Fenway Park.  David “Big Papi” Ortiz, linked to a positive test in the 2003 MLB testing report just 24 hours earlier, delivered the big blow – a game-winning 3-run HR to deep right center field that put the Red Sox ahead for good 6-5 with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th inning.  Sweet Caroline Please!

With the Red Sox win, they avoided losing 3 of 4 at home to the lowly A’s and pushed their record to 59-42.  They trail the Yankees by 3.0 games in the AL east pending the Yankees game tonight against the White Sox in Chicago.  The Red Sox wild card lead is 2 games over the Texas Rangers.