It wasn’t a perfect sweep, but at least the Red Sox took 2 out of 3 from the lowly Orioles at Fenway Park this weekend.

Jon Lester continued Brad Penny’s pitching dominance from Friday night with a stellar outing of his own on Saturday night.  Lester threw 7 1/3 innings of 2-run ball – he did give up 8 hits and 2 walks, but he struck out 9 and picked up his 9th win of the season.  Going-forward, Lester will be a key to the Red Sox success.  After starting the season by losing 4 of his 1st 6 decisions, Lester has has had several good starts in a row, allowing more than 3 earned runs only once since May 15th.  Lester has won 6 of his last 8 decisions and the Red Sox are 9-3 as a team in the games Lester has started since May 21st.

Newly acquired Adam LaRoche also delivered in his 1st 2 Red Sox starts over the weekend.  LaRoche went 3 for 8 with a 2-run HR on Saturday and 2 hits on Sunday.  David Ortiz got the Red Sox off to a good start with a 3-run HR in the 1st inning and the Red Sox banged out a double-digit 10 hits in the 7-2 win.

Bad news followed Sunday, however, as John Smoltz endured another rough outing.  Smoltz lasted just 5 innings giving up all of the Orioles 6 runs and 9 of the Orioles 10 hits on the day.  Smoltz did have 6 K’s, but his ERA rose to 7.04 and his WHIP rose to 1.53.  With Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield still on the DL, Smoltz will still have a spot in the starting rotation, but once either of those pitchers returns, Manager Terry Francona and GM Theo Epstein will likely have a tough decision on their hands.

The Red Sox are 57-40 and they trail the 1st place Yankees by 2.5 games in the AL East.  The Red Sox do, however, have a wild card lead over the Texas Rangers of 2.5 games and the Tampa Bay Rays by 4 games.

Injuries prevented Schilling from pitching in 2008 and although Schilling recently hinted that he could make a return to baseball later this season, he made his retirement official on Monday.

I’ve been wondering a lot about the status of Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, so I was glad to see this Curt Schilling update the other day.

It sounds like Schilling has had a lot of non-baseball activities and endeavors on his plate while recovering from re-constructive arm surgery. Schilling and his family have made Boston their home, although he still has ties to the Phoenix, Arizona area. Could he make part-time pitching in Fenway Park part of his day-to-day routine again in 2009, even if it is just half a season? Stay tuned…

It was a bittersweet season for Red Sox fans during the 2008 MLB season.

Yes, the Red Sox made it within 1 game of a chance to defend their 2007 World Series Championship.

Yes, the Red Sox overcame numerous injuries throughout the long 2008 MLB season to advance to post-season play for the 5th time in 6 years.

And yes, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis emerged from the shadows of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez to show that they were each legitimate stars in their own right.

But once you get that taste of “world champions” in your mouth (as the Red Sox did with World Series titles in 2004 and 2007), you want to keep going back to the fountain for more. So the Game 7 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 2008 ALCS brought back horrifying nightmares of that same Game 7 loss to the New York Yankees in the ALCS back in 2003 – a loss that would keep the Red Sox waiting another long year for that elusive World Series Championship.

Since 2002, the Red Sox have built a team that should be good for years and years to come. Instead of spending at-will, the Red Sox have achieved a perfect balance of building from within and signing free agents to complete the missing pieces to the puzzle. Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon, Jon Lester, Jason Varitek, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jared Lowrie are all home-grown talented stars that have worked their way up through the Red Sox farm system. The Red Sox have filled missing gaps over the years with the likes of David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Josh Beckett, Curt Schilling, Johnny Damon, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield, JD Drew, Mike Lowell, Coco Crisp and Orlando Cabrera. The Red Sox are no longer desperate to sign an aging free agent to a bad contract because they either have the talent to fill any void from within, or can use the talent from within to make a more reasonable trade that can help the team in a better fashion. And don’t get me wrong, if the Red Sox feel they need to spend money to get a “must-have” player, they are not afraid to do it – see the crazy bidding for Daisuke before the 2007 season as a perfect example of this.

Because of this, I have a lot of optimism for the future. Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia are true stars with great work ethics. Josh Beckett and David Ortiz should return to form following nagging injuries that negatively impacted their play as the season wore on. JD Drew and Mike Lowell should also be fully recovered from their injuries and be ready for the 2009 season. The pitching staff is solid with starters Beckett, Lester, Matsuzaka and Wakefield, and relievers Papelbon, Masterson and Okajima. Look for Ellsbury to have a huge year in 2009 and Jared Lowrie will continue to grow and learn at shortstop. Newly acquired Jason Bay should perform well in left field as he gets used to the Green Monster and more familiar with his new home in Boston.

The 2008-9 GM meetings have just concluded and the winter meetings will start soon. The Red Sox don’t have a lot of holes to fill, but I’m sure Theo Epstein will keep all lines of communication open during this important stretch. Here’s to successful off-season training programs for all of our Sox players – especially our injured warriors Ortiz, Beckett, Lowell and Drew – and here’s to waiting to hoist that 3rd World Series Trophy in 6 years in October (or November) 2009…