Shane Victorino Helps Red Sox Win First Extra Inning Game of 2013

On a nationally televised game on FOX Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park, the American East-leading Boston Red Sox (6-4) won a low-scoring nail-biter against the Tampa Bay Rays (4-6), by a score of 2-1 in 10 innings.

Sox ace Jon Lester went seven strong innings, allowing only 1 earned run while striking out 5, walking 1 and surrendering just 5 hits on 100 pitches. New manager (and former Sox pitching coach) John Farrell then turned to the bullpen (the purported major strength of this year's team), which did not allow a single hit the rest of the game.

Boston's first run came in the fifth when catcher David Ross hit a solo shot off of Rays starter David Price with 2 outs to tie the score 1-1 – Rays first baseman Sean Rodriguez had kicked off the scoring for the game and the Rays in the 3rd inning with a double off of Lester that center fielder Desmond Jennings scored on. But after the 5th inning, the bats for both sides were silenced for much of the rest of the game, until the 9th when they each squandered opportunities to break the tie.

The game went into extras (it being the first such game for both teams this season) and finally, in the bottom of the 10th, the Sox offense came alive. With 1 out, Sox star center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury singled to center off Rays reliever Brandon Gomes, and used his aggressiveness and speed on the bases to steal second. Rays catcher Jose Lobaton make a big error trying to throw him out, thus allowing Ellsbury to take third base. Then, Boston's new right fielder, the veteran Shane Victorino, drove in the game-winning infield single that easily allowed Ellsbury to score. The players were both then mobbed by their excited teammates and cheered on by the 33,000+ fanatics in attendance.

Speaking of fandom, the longest sellout streak in pro sports history came to an end on Wednesday night, with the Red Sox's consecutive games played in front of a full house at Fenway ending at 820. It bested the previous record of 814 set by the Portland Trailblazers from 1977-1995, according to the Huffington Post. Thus, you can find great Boston Red Sox tickets easier these days, with the seasonally cold (and sometimes rainy) April weather upon us. Through it all, the Sox plan to keep up its rather hot start to the season, with Clay Buchholz going against Alex Cobb on Sunday afternoon.

Photo credit: MLB (via Amazon.com)

Red Sox Still Reeling; Reinforcements On The Way

Note: This column took a much-needed week off during All-Star week

In the last five seasons, the Red Sox entered the All-Star break in first place in the AL East. In 2010, the injury-saddled Sox not only couldn’t continue that streak but went into the break in third place for the first time since 2000 after going 2-4 in its last six games of the first half. The only real highlight in that stretch worth noting now was Jon Lester getting his 11th win and manager Terry Francona collecting a milestone 900th win July 9 via a 14-3 ass whipping versus the Blue Jays. The Sox would go on to win that final three-game series of the first half, two games to one.

At Fenway Park this past weekend, the Sox lost a four-game series with the red hot Texas Rangers, three games to one, and through July 18, are now losers of eight of its last 11 games, falling to 3.5 games out of the AL Wild Card race and 6.5 behind AL East-leading New York. And the one win they got came Saturday against the much sought after Cliff Lee, a pitcher that was bound to go from Seattle to the Yankees until last-minute talks broke down on July 9, the day he eventually ended up getting traded to Texas. More on that game later.

This ix an excerpt of my latest Red Sox column, which was first published at Blogcritics Magazine earlier tonight.

Papi And Lester Among Hot Sox Entering June

With series wins at home versus the Oakland Athletics and on the road in Baltimore, the red hot Red Sox have now gone seven series in a row without losing one, dating back to losing two of three in Detroit in mid-May. They have won 11 of their past 15 games and are now tied with Toronto for third in the AL East with identical 33-25 records, which at a .569 winning percentage is also good for fourth in the AL.

More importantly, the Sox (and the offensive juggernaut that is the Blue Jays) are still well within striking distance of both divisional and Wild Card playoff spots, being respectively 4 1/2 GB of Tampa Bay and 2 1/2 GB of New York to start the week. One astounding development is that as of games through June 6, all four of these AL East teams lead the majors in runs scored, with the Sox and Yankees tied at the top with 314, followed by the Rays and Jays at 296 and 295, respectively.

And this division is also dominating the AL Wild Card race. The Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays own the top three spots coming into this new week. Of these, the biggest surprise is the Jays, who lost their general manager (J.P. Ricciardi), ace pitcher (Roy Halladay), and others in the past year. To the detriment of the rest of the league, it’s going to be a fun summer if this keeps up.

This is an excerpt from my latest "Dead Red" weekly Sox column, which was published earlier tonight in full at the site of Blogcritics Magazine via this cool link.

BoSox, Week 4: Sox Slay Jays, Reach New Low Vs. The O's

The following is a short excerpt from my most recent weekly Boston Red Sox column, published at Blogcritics Magazine on May 3, 2010

Red Sox Record for the Week of April 26-May 2: 3-3

In my last column, I stated that the Boston Red Sox needed to go at least 4-2 to move up in the AL East standings. After starting their six-game road trip by sweeping the Toronto Blue Jays in three matchups to get back to .500 for the first time since the second game of 2010, the Boston bunch moved one game ahead of the Jays into third place April 28 and got within 5.5 games of the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays. So it looked good for the BoSox as they got ready to play Baltimore in Camden Yards. Then the unthinkable happened.

Read more here

Red Sox, Week Three: Better? You Bet, But Not Good Enough

This edition of my "Dead Red" Boston Red Sox column was published first at Blogcritics 4/27/10

In The News

Last night (Monday), the Red Sox survived Josh Beckett’s worst start of the young season to win 13-12 in Toronto in a wild but exciting game. (More on that game in next week’s Dead Red.)

Elsewhere, the Sox called up LHP Fabio Castro from the PawSox to help the back of its beleaguered bullpen, which now has three lefties (including Hideki Okajima and Scott Schoeneweis). He has an ERA over 8.00 in Pawtucket in three starts in 2010 and is 0-1 with 13 Ks in 10 innings. His stuff includes a cut fastball in the high 80s, along with a decent changeup and curveball. Castro is 0-1 with a 3.30 ERA in 30 career games with the Phillies and Rangers.

Read the rest at the above link