Projo Sox Blog

One week ago today, the Red Sox were in second place in the A.L. East, five games behind Tampa Bay and seven back in the loss column. They still have a loss-column deficit -- of one game -- this morning, but they've moved back into first place by a half-game after yesterday's 2-1 win over the Orioles, a victory Joe McDonald credits to the bullpen . . . the anchor of which, Jonathan Papelbon, recorded his 100th career save. And it's a move into first place that's credited to a week in which they won five of six games, including a 12-1 romp Saturday night (Rob Lee has the the details) on the heels of the only loss of the homestand, 7-3 on Friday night. McDonald tells us all about it.

MORE OF THE SAME: Not many hits allowed. Not many runs allowed. (Yesterday, in fact, there were none.) Lots of pitches. Lots of walks. Lots of baserunners. Lots of jams. Lots of time elapsed. Not many innings pitched. And lots of relievers. We had the Full Dice-K on display yesterday -- and because the Orioles had a guy out there, Daniel Cabrera, who could match Matsuzaka pitch-outside-the-strike-zone for pitch-outside-the-strike-zone, it was touch and go for a while whether yesterday's game would be over in time to catch the start of tonight's Home Run Derby -- but it still ended as it almost always ends this year: With a victory for the Red Sox and the now 10-1 Daisuke Matsuzaka (left, Journal photo by Gretchen Ertl). "Watching Daisuke Matsuzaka pitch . . . [is what] it must have been like watching the pioneers head west on the Oregon Trail," writes the Worcester Telegram's Bill Ballou. "Wagons lurching, axles breaking, horses collapsing; quicksand, flooded rivers, dry water holes, blazing sun, frigid nights, wolves, coyotes, bobcats and rattlesnakes all around. Like the pioneers, Matsuzaka usually gets there . . . There's just no telling what the journey will look like." Yesterday's journey was particularly ugly, encapsulated by his fifth-inning performance in which he loaded the bases with two nowhere-near-the-plate walks and a hit batsman, and then escaped with no runs scoring. Still, it was, as the Boston Herald's Michael Silverman writes, "an effort almost mind-boggling in its inefficiency", and Sean McAdam says the Red Sox simply can't afford these sort of bullpen-busting outings on a consistent basis in the second half. Matsuzaka's struggles may be one of the reasons the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo thinks the 2008 Red Sox aren't quite up to the standards set by their 2007 predecessors.

HONOR STUDENTS: Even so, many of them got good marks on Silverman's midseason report card. Even Dice-K.

CHANGES: The other big news coming out of the weekend was Julio Lugo's quad tear, which, reports McDonald, will sideline him from four to six weeks. McDonald also has the news of Lugo's replacement, Jed Lowrie.

SCOUTING REPORT: FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal on Jed Lowrie: "Some question whether Lowrie can handle short, but one scout believes he will be fine defensively. Lowrie's biggest problem might be on balls to his right, the scout says, citing concerns about the infielder's quickness on such plays and his ability to plant and throw."

PERSONALITY REPORT: Rosenthal also writes: "Lowrie irritated some members of the Red Sox's staff during his first callup with his know-it-all manner -- a common criticism of players who attended Stanford, and one that is occasionally tinged with jealousy."

GET READY: In other injury news, McDonald reports David Ortiz will start his rehab assignment Thursday night in Pawtucket. That'll make it interesting for the staff at McCoy Stadium . . . one of whom, Michael Gwynn, is the subject of a nice feature by Paul Kenyon.

NO PROBLEMS: Kevin Youkilis had to leave yesterday's game after being hit in the arm by a Cabrera fastball, but the Red Sox report he's fine and will be able to partcipate in Tuesday's All-Star Game.

KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON: While most of the Sox head off to vacation, Terry Francona and seven of his players head to New York. (projo.com) Silverman hopes the Sox don't pay a price for the rest the players will lose.

PLANNING AHEAD: McDonald reports that when the Sox resume play Friday night in Anaheim, Clay Buchholz will be on the mound.

ON THEIR RADAR SCREEN: The Red Sox are one of the teams interested in the Pirates' Damaso Marte. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

OFF BASE: Joe Posnanski takes a look at Base Runs and finds the Red Sox are the only team well below their expectation in this area; they should have scored 504 runs so far this year, but have only scored 478. He explores various explanations and then concludes: "I blame Varitek. That seems trendy these days."

SHUT OUT: No members of the Red Sox were mentioned by FoxSports.com's Dayn Perry as he handed out first-half hardware.

IT'S WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN THE FUTURE, CHE-HSUAN: Baseball Musings' David Pinto has pictures from the Futures Game at Yankee Stadium, in which the World team beat the U.S. team, 3-0. Red Sox farmhand Che-Hsuan Lin hit a two-run homer and was named MVP, and Pinto reports: "Yankees fans booed while he was being interviewed by Erin Andrews [for ESPN], because Lin is in the Red Sox organization." The Boston Herald's John Tomase has more on Lin.

FAREWELL: Bobby Kielty and the Sox parted ways rather abruptly over the weekend. (projo.com)

COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU: Had the Rays won half their games over the last week -- or a quarter of them, or any of them -- they'd still be in first place today. But their slide to the All-Star break was punctuated by what the Tampa Tribune's Marc Lancaster called a 'cursory' 5-2 loss to the Indians, Tampa Bay's seventh consecutive defeat. The Rays are, says the Tampa Trib, ready for the break, in the hopes that four days off will both clear their heads and break the bad karma that's been surrounding the team since Kansas City's four-run, 10th-inning outburst last Monday afternoon. In spite of it all, the blog DRays Bay is still posting happy pictures of chinchillas -- I'm sure I missed something somewhere along the line -- because "it's hard to be disappointed with the overall picture."

Seven straight losses, a 5 1/2-game swing in the standings, a fall into second place . . . and it's hard to be disappointed? Take it from the Northeast Corridor voices of experience: You guys have a lot to learn about unhealthy obsession with baseball.

CHINCHILLA RAISING: Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times looks back at the first half and all the moments that have folks in Tampa gazing at chinchillas.

WIZARDS OF WALL STREET:The St. Petersburg Times' John Romano finds the Rays' resurgence has been built by a management team that "approached this thing like the Wall Street investors they once were."

STAR-GAZER: The Rays only have three All-Stars headed to New York, and they're hoping one of them -- Scott Kazmir -- does nothing but watch the game. (St. Petersburg Times)

STAR-MAKER: One of the Rays' other All-Stars, Dioner Navarro, is one of the "the underlying [threads] that ties everything together" in the Tampa Bay clubhouse. (Tampa Tribune)

'WE STINK RIGHT NOW': So says Andy Pettitte after the Yankees' 4-1 loss to the Blue Jays yesterday (New York Daily News), a game in which the Yanks looked like "a team that had nowhere to go but was in a big hurry to get there." (New York Post) So as the All-Star break arrives they're six games behind the first-place Red Sox and 5 1/2 behind the wild-card-leading Rays, and the New York Post's Joel Sherman says their "dirty little secret" is they may be playing for the future and not the present.

THE FUTURE IS NOW: Maybe so, but the Daily News' Mark Feinsand says the Yanks "are in pretty good shape" and the second half should provide "an entertaining stretch run."

IS THAT SO? The blog River Ave. Blues isn't so sure about that.

SIGNS OF LIFE: At least Jorge Posada is still in there kicking; yesterday he was upset after A.J. Burnett did a celebratory fist pump after his sixth-inning strikeout of Posada with two men on base,

Uh, excuse me? Jorge? What's that old saying about teams that live in glass houses not throwing stones? Or, to put it another way: Allow me to introduce you to Joba Chamberlain (left).

SOMETHING'S IN THE AIR: But it's not just Burnett. Or Chamberlain. The A's have very little use for Francisco Rodriguez after K-Rod "[double-pumped] his arms toward the ground and then [thrust] them toward the sky upon completion of the Angels' 4-3 win yesterday. (Los Angeles Times)

MORE HANK, PLEASE: Reggie Jackson thinks Hank Steinbrenner needs to make more than an occasional visit to Yankee Stadium because New York needs a Steinbrenner presence. (USA Today)

IF I AIN'T STARTIN', I AIN'T DEPARTIN': Or if not startin', at least participatin'. Jason Giambi turned down a chance to compete in the Home Run Derby because he's not a member of the A.L. All-Star team. (nj.com)

PERSONA NON GRATA: Ex-Yankee Jim Leyritz made his first visit to Yankee Stadium yesterday -- as a talent scout for a Boston-based player agency -- since his Dec. 28 arrest on a charge of DUI manslaughter for his role in an accident that killed a 30-year-old mother of two in Fort Lauderdale. (New York Post) He wouldn't talk to the media about the incident, handing out a statement to reporters who asked about it, but the New York Daily News, quoting a report in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, said Leyritz was disappointed that he wasn't invited to be part of the All-Star festivities, though he understood the Yanks' reasons for excluding him.

A LITTLE LATE FOR THAT, DON'T YOU THINK? The Dallas Morning News' Tim Cowlishaw thinks Yankee Stadium should be updated, not torn down.

PASSAGES: The extended Yankee family was saddened Saturday when news arrived that Bobby Murcer had lost his fight with brain cancer at the age of 62. (New York Post) The Daily News' Mike Lupica put aside his anti-Yankee animus to laud Murcer as "the prince of our city" -- or at least that was the headline writer's interpretation -- and colleague Bill Madden said Yankee Universe "will miss him and never forget him." The Post's Mike Vaccaro says that, until Saturday, there were two ways "to understand what the Yankees mean to the people, and to the sport [of baseball]." One was to visit the Hall of Fame to drink in their accomplishments; the other was to "spend a couple of minutes in the company of Bobby Murcer as he walked among the fans at Yankee Stadium." The Yanks on Sunday began wearing a black armband in honor of Murcer (New York Daily News), and will continue to do so all season.

PERSPECTIVE: Posnanski has an absolutely wonderful look at Murcer's career -- I never realized his 1971 and '72 seasons were so good -- and talks at length about the 1974 swap of Murcer for Bobby Bonds, that rare, one-for-one trade of superstars . . . and how it ended up hurting both teams. And he also mentions the eerie coincidence that both Murcer and Bonds died too young.

MORE PASSAGES: There were an unusually high number of baseball-related deaths this weekend. Among them: Ex-Royals reliever Steve Mingori (Kansas City Star), ex-Cardinals catcher and coach Dave Ricketts (Bird Land) and 1950s pitcher Chuck Stobbs. (heraldtribune.com)

GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS: A bird pooped on the shoulders of the Chicago Sun-Times' Rick Telander at Wrigley Field the other day, which prompted him to write: "So I ask you long-suffering Cubs fans: Is this not a sign? Is this not the year?"

THAT'S TWO: The Brewers are now 2-0 in CC Sabathia starts, as the big left-hander pitched a complete game and hit a home run in a 3-2 win over the Reds. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

'IT'S EMBARRASSING': Ozzie Guillen threw both teams -- his own White Sox and their opponent, the Rangers -- under the bus after Texas' sloppy 12-11 win yesterday. (Chicago Sun-Times) Guillen, however, probably ensured his team's defeat by taunting Rangers closer C.J. Wilson. (Dallas Morning News) "I didn't have good stuff, and then I got angry when Ozzie Guillen started yelling at me," said Wilson, "and I just took it to another level." Wilson struck out Jim Thome and Paul Konerko to end the game.

IT'S REALLY SIMPLE: Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle has six easy solutions to the A's attendance problems. And, in reality, No. 6 -- "Catch the Angels" -- is probably all they really need.

AMAZIN': The Daily News' Vic Ziegel discusses the Mets' turnaround; they won their seventh straight last night.

HERE AND THERE: Ichiro Suzuki just said no to the Home Run Derby (Seattle Times) . . . The Tigers say they won't call up Class A right-hander Rick Porcello to be their fifth starter (Detroit Free Press) . . . Dontrelle Willis, who should be in the Tigers' rotation, is instead reinventing himself down at Lakeland. (Detroit Free Press)

WHISPERS: The Yankees may be interested in Richie Sexson (New York Post) . . . Ex-Tiger GM Randy Smith may get the chance to run the Mariners (cbs.sportsline.com) . . . The Diamondbacks are interested in Raul Ibanez (East Valley Tribune) . . . The Phillies asked about Brian Fuentes, and the Rockies responded by asking for two of Philadelphia's top prospects (Philadephia Inquirer) . . . Milton Bradley figures his name will come up in trade talks between now and July 31, but he's not worried about it (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) . . . Astros GM Ed Wade isn't ready to pull the plug on the season. (Houston Chronicle)

OLD FRIENDS: The blog Rays Index is asking readers for comments on Tampa Bay radio announcer Andy Freed, who arrived in Florida directly from the broadcast booth at McCoy Stadium . . . Justin Duchscherer got a tough-luck no-decision yesterday as the A's blew a late lead and lost to the Angels (San Jose Mercury News) . . . Kason Gabbard's elbow still hurts and he's 'in limbo,' according to the Rangers. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

AND FINALLY . . . They may be mortal enemies, but Red Sox and Yankee fans are territorial about their turf war. Witness Bugs and Cranks' Ed Valentine, who writes: "If the Yankees can't be leading the division, having the Red Sox on top is somehow more palatable than having to stomach saying 'the first-place Tampa Bay Rays.' "

Take that, Raymond.

-- ART MARTONE