Clay Buchholz made sure that the Red Sox wouldn’t lose the series to the Royals in Kansas City.  Buchholz pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up just 5 hits along the way.  Buchholz had 8 K’s and no walks and has really impressed of late.  Buchholz is now 7-3 on the season with a 3.21 ERA.  He has won 6 straight decisions over an 8-start span.  Not bad for someone that has had his ups and downs in 2009.

David Ortiz continued his hot hitting for the Red Sox – 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s, 1 run scored and a walk.  He clubbed his 26th HR of 2009, a solo shot that started a 3-run 4th inning which gave the Red Sox a 4-0 lead.  Jacoby Ellsbury also had 3 hits for the Red Sox with 1 RBI and 2 runs scored.  Ellsbury continues to lead the American League with 66 steals.  Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez, Casey Kotchman and Alex Gonzalez each had 2 hits in the Red Sox 15 hit attack.

The Red Sox now have their sights set on the Yankees in the Bronx this weekend.  Trailing the Yankees by 5.5 games in the AL East race, this will be their last shot to make a run at the division crown. The match-ups look like this:

Friday Night – Jon Lester v. Joba Chamberlain

Saturday Afternoon – Daisuke Matsuzaka v. CC Sabathia

Sunday Afternoon – Paul Byrd v. Andy Pettitte

The Red Sox are all but assured of making the playoffs even if they don’t overtake the Yankees.  The Red Sox have an 8 game lead over the Rangers for the AL Wild Card and their magic number is 3 games to qualify for post-season play.

Clay Buchholz won his 6th game of 2009 as the Red Sox opened their 10-game road trip with a 3-1 win over the O’s in Baltimore.  Buchholz pitched 6 innings of 1-run ball, giving up just 5 hits and 3 walks with 1 strikeout.  Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon each pitched a scoreless inning of relief to close out the win.  It was Papelbon’s 37th save of the 2009 MLB schedule.

Casey Kotchman had 3 hits including an RBI single that gave the Red Sox an early 1-0 lead.  Jason Bay’s 34th HR of the season gave the Red Sox a 2-1 lead in the 4th.  Victor Martinez and Jacoby Ellsbury each had 2 hits.

The Red Sox have a 7-game lead over the Rangers in the AL Wild Card race.

The Blue Jays roughed up Josh Beckett again, but the Red Sox rallied for a 6-5 win Friday night at Fenway Park.  It was the Red Sox 4th win in 5 games, and their 8th win in 11 games.

Beckett struggled with his control all night long – needing 108 pitches to labor through 5 innings. Beckett gave up 5 earned runs on 5 hits and 5 walks.  He served up a 3-run HR to Aaron Hill and a 2-run HR to Rod Barrajas and was constantly working out of jams.  Takashi Saito, Daniel Bard and Hideki Okajima combined for 3 scoreless innings to get it to Jonathan Papelbon in the 9th inning.  And although he gave up 2 singles and hit Randy Ruiz to load the bases with only 1 out, he beared down to strike out Rod Barrajas and Travis Snider to notch his 31st save of the 2009 MLB schedule.

After trailing 5-3 in the top of the 5th inning, the Red Sox rallied to tie the game at 5 on Jason Bay’s 2-run HR in the bottom of the inning.  The Red Sox scored the go-ahead run in the 8th inning by playing small ball.  David Ortiz walked and moved to third on J.D. Drew’s double to center field.  The Blue Jays intentionally walked Jason Varitek to face Alex Gonzalez, but Manager Terry Francona pinch-hit Casey Kotchman for Gonzalez.  Kotchman delivered the game-winning RBI with a fielder’s choice groundout that plated Ortiz with the go-ahead run.

The Red Sox are back to 20 games over .500 at 74-54.  Although they still trail the Yankees by 6 games in the AL East, the Red Sox have built a little cushion in the AL Wild Card race – 2.5 games over the Rangers and 4.5 games over the Rays.

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 Red Sox out-slugged the Orioles 18-10 on Sunday to complete a 3-game weekend series sweep in Baltimore.  The Red Sox scored in every inning except the 5th and 7th innings.  They racked up 23 hits and 7 walks, and struck out just 3 times all game.

Newly acquired Victor Martinez led the hitting barrage by going 5 for 6 with 4 RBI’s and 1 run scored.  Check out some of these sweet lines: Jacoby Ellsbury – 2 hits, 4 runs scored, 2 walks; Dustin Pedroia – 3 hits, 4 runs scored, 1 walk; Kevin Youkilis – 3 hits, 2 runs scored, 2 RBI’s, 2 walks; Rocco Baldelli – 2 hits, 2 runs scored, 1 RBI, 2 walks; Josh Reddick – 2 hits, 2 runs scored, 2 RBI’s; Jed Lowrie – 2 hits, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, 1 walk.  Not bad in a day’s work.

The only surprising story out of the game was that Red Sox starter Clay Buccholz didn’t get the win!  Buchholz labored through 4 innings, giving up 7 ER on 9 hits and 4 walks.  His lack of control cost him a shot at pitching 5 innings to qualify for the win, and Manager Terry Francona didn’t want to take any chances with the big lead.  Manny Delcarmen picked up his 4th win of the 2009 MLB schedule by pitching 1 2/3 innings of 2-run ball.  Ramon Ramirez gave up 1 run on 4 hits in 1 1/3 of an inning and Takashi Saito closed out the game with 2 scoreless innings of work.

The Red Sox are now 62-42 – 20 games over .500 – and just a 1/2 game behind the Yankees for 1st place in the AL East.

GM Theo Epstein had this to say about Martinez: “We think Victor Martinez is a great fit for our club and provides a significant offensive boost, and he does it with some versatility that complements our roster really well… He can catch and give Tek a little bit of a rest behind the plate, and he can play first base and get some at-bats there.  He can DH a little bit, so we thought it was a good fit for our roster, and he provides some offensive support and some depth at the same time.”

Martinez, although sad to be departing the only only MLB organization that he has ever played for, had this to say:  “I think everybody know… I play to tin.  I love this game, and I just play to win.  I would love to go out there and do the same thing.  I want to get a World Series wing.  As soon as I cross those lines, I’m all about winning.”

The Red Sox gave up Justin Masterson, as well as young pitchers Nick Hagadone and Bryan Price.  It will be sad to see Masterson go as he done whatever the Red Sox have asked of him the last 2 seasons, but the move will likely give him an everyday starter’s role in Cleveland.

In an even more last minute deal, the Red Sox traded recently acquired Adam LaRoche to the Atlanta Braves for Casey Kotchman.  Kotchman is a great 1st base defender and he has a sneaky good bat.  He played in 87 games for the Braves this year – .282 batting average, .354 on-base percentage, 6 HR’s, 41 RBI’s, 32 walks and only 28 K’s.