Wow – this really isn’t the way the Red Sox drew it up.  The Red Sox bats have disappeared and 1 inning has done in each of Jon Lester and Josh Beckett in the 1st 2 games of the ALDS against the Angels in Anaheim.  Not good.

First the bats – the Red Sox managed just 4 hits off of Jered Weaver and 3 Angels’ relievers in Friday night’s 4-1 loss.  That makes 7 total hits for the series and just 1 run.  Jacoby Ellsbury had 2 of the Red Sox hits last night and scored the lone run on Victor Martinez’s RBI single in the 4th inning.  He is the only Red Sox regular hitting above .250 in the series – at .286.  Bad, bad, bad…

Josh Beckett was cruising along until the 7th inning.  Lead off walks always seem to come back and haunt you.  Beckett walked Vladmir Guerrero to start the inning and Howie Kendrick pinch-ran for Guerrero.  That seemed to distract Beckett for the rest of the inning.  Although Beckett did get 2 outs with Kendrick at 2nd base after his steal, Beckett could not close out the inning.  He gave up a Macier Izturis single to center field that drove in Kendrick with the go-ahead run.  And then after he hit Mike Napoli with a pitch, he served up the game-breaking 2-run triple Erick Aybar that gave the Angels a 4-1 lead.

The Red Sox now have their backs up against a wall.  The Red Sox trail the series 2-0 heading back for Game 3 on Sunday at Fenway Park.  Manager Terry Francona has decided to go with Clay Buchholz to get the must-win game.  Buchholz has pitched well at the end of the season, although his final regular season tune-up was not great.  Buchholz did not face the Angels this season and he has a career 6.35 ERA against the Angels in 3 starts.  The Angels will counter with Scott Kazmir.  The Red Sox have seen Kazmir a lot since he played with the Tampa Bay Rays for several seasons, so let’s hope the Red Sox can get on the board early as their bats come alive at Fenway…

Don’t lose faith Sox fans – we’ve been here before and overcome worse conditions!

Finally – the Red Sox winning recipe finally came back to fruition on Thursday night behind a solid outing by Jon Lester.  Lester proved that he was fine after getting hit with a line drive in last Friday night’s loss to the Yankees in New York.  Lester threw 84 pitches and came out of the game after issuing a walk with 1 out in the 7th inning.  Lester gave up only 2 hits and 1 walk, with 7 strikeouts.  Manager Terry Francona felt he had proved enough at that point:  “We were really happy.  I don’t think we thought it was an issue.  We wouldn’t have allowed him to pitch.  It was really nice to see him pitch as well as he did for a lot of reasons.”

Daniel Bard, Billy Wagner and Jonathan Papelbon did the rest, allowing just 1 hit the rest of the way.  Wagner and Papelbon worked perfect 8th and 9th innings and seem primed for a solid post-season.

With most of the starters back in the lineup, the Red Sox offense clicked on all cylinders.  Although they only scored 3 runs, the team crushed 12 hits and drew 4 walks.  Jacoby Ellsbury led the way with 3 hits and 1 run scored.  Victor Martinez, Jason Bay and Alex Gonzalez each had 2 hits.

The rest of the weekend series for the Red Sox looks like this – Daisuke Matsuzaka tonight; Josh Beckett on Saturday night and Clay Buchholz on Sunday afternoon.  Lester is line to be the Red Sox Game 1 starter against the Angels next week in Anaheim.  How sweet is that to have Lester going in Game 1 and Beckett going in Game 2?  Look out Angels fans…

Should we start to panic in Beantown?  The Red Sox just dropped their 6th straight game – 12-0 to the Blue Jays.  Wakefield looked bad (5 ER on 7 hits and 2 walks in just 3 innings).  The bullpen did not fare much better – Fernando Cabrera, Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima and back-up catcher Dusty Brown each gave up runs in their inning of work.

The lone bright spot – Dusty Brown – back-up catcher, pitching the 9th inning in relief.  Brown threw 13 pitches – 9 for strikes – and gave up 1 earned run on a single, double and RBI groundout.  Not bad for a back-up catcher.

Now I know that all but 2 of the regulars (David Ortiz and Alex Gonzalez) were on the bench against Roy Halladay, but I’d really like to see the Red Sox win a game or 2 against the Indians this weekend. It looks like Manager Terry Francona is going with his starters in tonight’s game to support Jon Lester in his final tune up before the playoffs.  Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay and Mike Lowell (in addition to Ortiz and Gonzalez) are back in the lineup tonight.  Let’s hope the team comes to play and puts an end to this frustrating 6 game skid.  Go Sox!

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.

It’s about time – the bats finally came back to life and Josh Beckett worked hard to shut down the Royals and pick up his 16th win of the 2009 MLB schedule.  After falling behind 2-0 in the 4th inning, the Red Sox rallied for 6 runs in the 5th inning to take control of the game.  Jacoby Ellsbury started the rally with a 2-run triple to center field that tied the game at 2.  Dustin Pedroia drove Ellsbury home with a single to give the Red Sox a 3-2 lead.  A Jason Bay 2-run single and a David Ortiz RBI single rounded out the scoring in the 5th inning.  David Ortiz’s 3-run home run in the 9th inning (his 25th of the season) gave the Red Sox a comfortable 9-2 lead.

Beckett gave up 12 hits in 6 innings of work, but managed to work around jams.  He struck out 7 and walked only 1 and kept the Red Sox in the game until the offense exploded in the 5th inning.  Beckett bettered his record to 16-6, lowering his ERA to 3.78.  Hideki Okajima, Billy Wagner and Jonathan Papelbon each pitched scoreless/hitless innings to preserve the Red Sox win.

The Red Sox still trail the Yankees by 6 games and lead the Rangers by 7 games.  Their magic number sits at 5 for clinching a playoff spot.  The Yankees were the 1st team to clinch a playoff spot with their win over the Angels on Wednesday.

This is getting old.  Zach Greinke and the Royals made it 2 in a row on Tuesday night with a 5-1 win over the Red Sox.  Ouch.  Any chance of winning the AL East is slowly slipping away as the Yankees defeated the Angels 6-5 in Anaheim.  The Red Sox now trail the Yankees by 6 games, but still hold a tight grip on the AL Wild Card lead with a 7 games lead over the fading Texas Rangers.

Paul Byrd struggled in 1st inning giving up 5 ER and having trouble with his control.  Byrd did save the bullpen, however, by pitching into the 7th inning – 9 hits and 4 walks.

Greinke held the Red Sox to no runs on just 2 hits and 3 walks in 6 innings of work.  The Red Sox scored their lone run on an RBI groundout by Victor Martinez in the 8th inning (after 2 walks and Jacoby Ellsbury stole 3rd base to move to 3rd with less than 2 outs).

Let’s hope Josh Beckett can step up with a good outing tonight in the series finale in Kansas City…

The Red Sox defeated the Orioles 9-3 on Sunday completing a 3-game weekend series sweep.  The Red Sox won 16 of 18 games against Batimore during the 2009 MLB schedule.  The Red Sox scored in each of the 1st 4 innings of the game to open up a 7-0 lead.  And Daisuke Matsuzaka did the rest – picking up his 2nd straight win since coming off the DL.  Dice-K pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up 3 ER on 8 hits and 1 walk.  He struck out 5, but didn’t have the same crispness that he had in a win last week.  This week, he needed 110 pitches before running into trouble in the 6th, but at least 73 of them were strikes.

Jacoby Ellsbury had 3 hits, 3 RBI’s and 2 runs scored to pace the way for the Red Sox.  Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez, Jason Bay and Alex Gonzalez each had 2 hits.  Ellsbury and Bay each hit home runs.

With the sweep, the Red Sox increased their AL Wild Card lead over the Rangers to 8 games.  And even more interesting, the Red Sox have chipped into the Yankees hold on the AL East lead.  The Red Sox now trail the Yankees by only 5 games, and with the Red Sox playing 4 games against the Royals this week before next weekend’s tilt in the Bronx, could that lead be even smaller by Friday night?  We’ll have to keep a close eye on the race as the Yankees play 3 games against the Angels in Anaheim before heading back east…

The Red Sox turned a back-and-forth close game into a blow out with 8 total runs in the 7th and 8th innings.

At 88-59, the Red Sox trail the Yankees by 6 games in the AL East, but lead the Rangers by 7 games in the AL Wild Card race.

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 Angels finally came through with a 4-3 win over the Red Sox @ Fenway Park this week.  Billy Wagner suffered his 1st loss in a Red Sox uniform giving up a 1-out single to Howie Kendrick that plated the winning run in the 9th inning.  And Brian Fuentes actually pitched on the mound instead of bad-mouthing the umps to pick up his major-league leading 42nd save of the 2009 MLB schedule.

The Red Sox wasted a solid outing from Josh Beckett – 3 ER on 7 hits over 8 productive innings.  Beckett struck out 7 and did not walk any batters.

The Red Sox offense was mostly quiet – 6 hits and only 1 walk.  3 of the hits came in the 4th inning.  A leadoff home run from Jacoby Ellsbury, and with 1 out, a single by Victor Martinez and a 2-run HR by Jason Bay.  That gave the Red Sox the short-lived 3-1 lead.  But the Angels kept fighting back scoring lone runs in the 5th, 7th and 9th innings to pull out the road win.

The Red Sox are still 27 games over .500 at 86-59.  The Red Sox trail the Yankees by 7 games, but lead the Rangers by 6 games in the AL Wild Card race.

The Red Sox now open up a big 10-game road trip – their last of the 2009 MLB schedule.  They play 3 against the Orioles in Baltimore this weekend, 4 against the Royals in Kansas City during the week, and then 3 more against the Yankees at the New Yankee Stadium.  Should be a fun 2 weeks – enjoy the ride…