One of the biggest questions for the Red Sox this off-season will be whether or not Jason Bay will be patrolling left field again in 2010.  Both sides have indicated that they want to get a deal done, but Bay is eligible for free agency 15 days after the end of the World Series and it doesn’t look like the Red Sox will be able to get him to agree to a deal before then.

GM Theo Epstein and Bay’s agents discussed long-term plans during the course of the 2009 MLB schedule, but Bay’s agents broke off talks right before the All-Star Break.  This is what Epstein had to say about the process – “It’s been a really unusual negotiation in the first place, so I can’t tell you what’s going to happen.  We want to keep him and he wants to stay here and we’ve been unable to reach a deal.  I don’t think either side has been unreasonable or too conservative or not aggressive enough, not pro-active enough… It just hasn’t happened and it’s been disappointing that it hasn’t.  I don’t think he’s to blame for it.  I don’t think we’re to blame for it.  It still hasn’t happened.  I hope it does.  And if that exclusivity period can help bring the sides together, then great.  And if it doesn’t, then we’ll see what happens.”  Not totally positive, is it?

Bay was similarly vague – “I think ultimately it just boils down to the fact that I’ve gotten to this point and I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t look around.  But at the same time, I’ve said it all along – - I’m a pretty level-headed guy.  If something comes along that makes sense [with the Red Sox], I’d have a tough time saying no… For me, it’s been the winning. You get that in some other places.  But after being here, the rabid fan base and playing for the Red Sox, there’s really not that experience in a lot of places.  When I got here, baseball, not that it wasn’t fun before, but it was really fun again.  I kind of enjoyed that… I’m a creature of habit.  I like already knowing the guys in the clubhouse, knowing Tito, knowing what it’s like to play here.  I really enjoyed it.  The familiarity is huge.”  Definitely a little more positive than Epstein, but at the end of the day it will come down to money and security with the length of the contract.

Bay’s numbers spoke volumes during the 2009 MLB schedule.  Bay was the main cog in the middle of the Red Sox lineup all season long.  In 151 games, Bay garnered over 530 at-bats hitting .267 with a .  Bay hit 36 HR’s, drove in 119 runs and scored 103 runs (all team high’s).  Although he had only 1 hit in 8 at-bats against the Angels in the ALDS this October, Bay showed that he can produce in the playoffs in 2008 – he had a .341 batting average with 3 HR’s, 9 RBI’s and 6 runs scored in 11 post-season games against the Angels and Rays.

Bay would be a great long-term addition for the Red Sox.  Let’s hope the two sides can come to some sort of agreement before Thanksgiving.  It would be great to see him shagging balls in front of the Green Monster at Fenway Park for years to come.  If not, the Red Sox will certainly have to consider making a run at St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday.  The Cards have an exclusivity period with Holliday as well, so it will be interesting to see if the Cards can lock Holliday up before he makes it to the open market.  It’s unlikely that the Yankees will make a run at either player, so it appears that the Red Sox would have the upper hand in landing either player…

It wasn’t perfect, but Daisuke surely ended his 2009 regular season on a high note in Friday night’s 6-2 win over the Indians at Fenway Park.  Matsuzaka pitched 6 solid innings, giving up just 2 ER on 5 hits and 3 walks.  Matsuzaka struck out 7 batters and has lowered his ERA under 6.00 (5.76) and his WHIP under 2.00 (1.87). Now I know that doesn’t sound all that good, but considering how he looked early in the season, his pitching of late has been a huge success.  Daisuke is 3-1 in his last 4 starts since coming off the DL.  He has pitched at least 5 1/3 innings in each start and he has not given up more than 3 ER in any outing.  If the Red Sox can rely upon Daisuke as the team’s #3 or #4 starter in the post-season, that can only mean good things for the club…

Victor Martinez led the Red Sox offense with 2 hits, 1 RBI and 1 run scored.  Jason Bay had 2 hits and an RBI, while Kevin Youkilis had 1 hit and 2 RBI’s.

Billy Wagner also worked 2/3 of a scoreless inning striking out both batters that he faced.

The Red Sox only have 2 games left this weekend against the Indians at Fenway Park.

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!

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 one is going to hurt – the Red Sox blew an 8-2 lead and ended up losing to the Royals 12-9 in Kansas City.  With the Yankees losing to the Angels on the west coast, the Red Sox blew a golden opportunity to cut the AL East lead to just 4 games with a big weekend series coming up in the Bronx.  If the Red Sox end up sweeping the Yankees this weekend, they’ll look back to this loss to the Royals if they don’t end up winning the division.

Jason Bay got the Red Sox off to a great start with a 3-run HR in the 3rd inning as part of a 6-run outburst.  Bay has been on fire of late, hitting home runs in 4 consecutive games and increasing his team-leading totals to 36 HR’s and 113 RBI’s.  Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez and Rocco Baldelli each had 2 hits, as the Red Sox pounded out 12 hits, 9 runs and 7 walks against Lenny DiNardo and 3 Royals relievers.

But the bigger story was the Red Sox poor pitching.  Tim Wakefield made his 1st start since he lost to the White Sox on September 5th and struggled with his control.  Wakefield gave up 5 hits and 7 walks in just 5 innings of work.  He gave up 5 runs, 4 of which were earned.

Manny Delcarmen recorded only 2 outs in a 6-run 6th inning for the Royals.  He gave up 4 ER on 3 hits and 1 walk.  And Daniel Bard wasn’t much better – giving up 2 ER on 2 hits and 1 walk while recording the final out of the 6th.  Bard suffered his 2nd loss of the season and has really been exposed as of late as his ERA (3.72) and WHIP (1.30) are both on the rise.  The Royals regained the lead – 11-9 – with that 6-run inning, and the Royals bullpen held the Red Sox offense scoreless through the final 3 frames to record the win.

Even though the Royals have been playing the spoiler of late (they took 2 of 3 games from each of the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox last week), the Red Sox are really going to kick themselves with this loss.  Having such a big lead only to see it slip away while the Yankees were losing will be a tough pill to swallow.  Let’s hope the Red Sox can rally behind Paul Byrd tonight, because they are going to have their hands full with Zach Greinke and his 2.14 ERA…

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…

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…

Wah, wah, wah… That’s the noise you heard coming from the Angels dugout after the Red Sox rallied for a 3rd time to win 9-8 in the 9th inning at Fenway Park.  Gimme a break – don’t put your team in a position to lose, and then you don’t have to bitch about “bad umpiring”.

The Red Sox won for the 7th straight game and for the 10th straight time at Fenway Park.  The Red Sox now lead the AL Wild Card race by 6.5 games over the Texas Rangers and they close out the series with the Angels on Thursday night at Fenway.

The Red Sox trailed the Angels by 3-0, 7-5 and 8-7.  The final rally came when closer Brian Fuentes got into trouble with 2 outs in the 9th inning.  Fuentes walked David Ortiz, and then gave up infield singles to J.D. Drew and Jed Lowrie to load the bases.  Then came the drama.  Fuentes got 2 quick strikes on Nick Green.  Green then offered at the 3rd pitch, but 1st base umpire ruled it was not a swing, so the count went to 1-2.  Green fouled off the next 3 pitches to keep the inning alive, and then Fuented threw 3 straight balls to walk Green and allow the tying run to score.  Then Alex Gonzalez followed that up with a bloop single down the left field line that Juan Rivera decided not to dive for – Drew scored with the winning run and we were left to listen to the Angels bitch about the bad umpiring during Green’s at-bat.

Hey Scioscia, Fuentes – if you didn’t walk Ortiz with 2 outs, if Rivera dove for the ball in left, or if you didn’t give up the lead 2 times before the 9th inning – you wouldn’t need to bitch about things “not going your way” in the 9th inning.

In any event, it really wasn’t a pretty win for the Red Sox.  Paul Byrd had another mediocre outing – 3ER on 9 hits and 1 walk in 5+ innings.  Ramon Ramirez lost his cool in the 7th inning after he struck out Kendry Morales for the 3rd out in the inning, but he reached base because of Jason Varitek’s passed ball error.  Instead of buckling down with 1 on and 2 outs, Ramirez imploded, giving up a single and 2 straight doubles to allow the Angels to re-take the lead at 7-5.  And while the Red Sox did pound out 13 hits and were patient enough to earn 7 walks, the Red Sox scored “only” 9 runs and left way too many men on base – 18.  Jacoby Ellsbury, Jason Bay and Alex Gonzalez each had 2 hits, but they never seem to have that clutch hit to blow an inning wide open.

But a win is a win, and the good news is that the Red Sox are in the heads of the entire Angels organization.  The Angels have never beaten the Red Sox in 4 playoff series and they have lost 12 of 13 games to the Red Sox dating back to 1986.  With the 2 teams likely meeting in the 1st round of the playoffs, that is a HUGE advantage for the Red Sox, even if the Angels have home field advantage.  The Red Sox have won in Anaheim/Los Angeles before, and they will likely do so again in October…