NIXON TO START ON PATRIOTS DAY

The word on Yawkey Way is that Nixon will probably play against the Mariners in Monday morning's game against the Mariners. Nixon probably wouldn't have played much anyway considering all the lefthanded starters we've played. The cavalcade of southpaws will continue with Casey Fossum on Tuesday and Scott Kazmir on Thursday.

AL EASTER BEATS AL WESTER 3-2

The Red Sox actually played well today as an Easter present for their fans. Josh Beckett was once again very impressive, improving to 3-0 for the first time in his career with his first career win over the Mariners.

Manny Ramirez actually got an RBI. He went 1 for 3, with an RBI groundout. He was also robbed of a hit by Richie Sexson on a hard liner ticketed for right field. The Sox lineup did not hit much better than they did yesterday, but they were able to take advantage of miscues by the Mariners and score enough runs for Josh Beckett to win the game.

Timlin pitched a scoreless 8th that featured some nifty glove work by none other than Manny Ramirez. Manny made a good leaping grab that could have been a double, and caught a slicing fly ball that could have fallen in for a hit.



Papelbon was perfect in the 9th, recording his 6th save. The most important thing to note with Papelbon's success is that his saves haven't been cheap or easy ones. This was his 4th 1 run save in as many opportunities.

The Man of the Game is Josh Beckett. He went 7, allowed only 1 earned run off 6 hits and 1 walk. He struck out 5. This is his 2nd Man of the Game. This reminds me of 2004 when Pedro and Schilling went back and forth winning Man of the Game honors. Now it's Beckett and Schilling. And if Roger Clemens is reading, I'll give you bonus MOTGs to keep you in the race if you sign with the Red Sox.

Lenny DiNardo will take the hill for the Sox against Gil Meche in the annual 11 AM Patriots Day game. I think this game will have a good deal of offense. Our bullpen is pretty well rested with Beckett going 7 and Wakefield 9 yesterday so we should be in good shape if we can keep it close through 5.

BRUINS SEASON IS FINALLY OVER

Thank GOD! The Bruins were simply painful to watch this year with 1 goal losses, trading away Samsonov and Thornton for practically nothing, and only 2 shootout victories. Mike Sullivan needs to be fired and the team needs to do some MAJOR retooling. We need guys that can shoot the puck. It's that simple. This is the first time since the 2000-01 season that the Bruins have failed to make the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Also, congratulations to my friend Liz here in Ithaca and from Massachusetts for being congratulated by the Boston Globe for her efforts in the New York State Swim Championships. Scroll down to Campus Corner On this page.

MARINERS 3, WAKEFIELD 0

Wakefield was all by himself today. No offense supporting him, no defense behind him. Wake went the full 9, allowing 2 earned runs. Normally, that'd be good enough to win. However, the Red Sox effort at the plate and in the field was, in a word, insignificant.

At the plate, the Red Sox went 5 for 32. The 1 thru 6 hitters went 2 for 22 with no extra basehits.

The Red Sox had a threat in the first. Ortiz singled, Ramirez singled. With runners on the corners and two outs, Youkilis grounded out to end the inning.

In the 2nd, Snow led off with a walk. Pena hit what might have been a triple, and what would have at least been an RBI double, but it bounced on the warning track and into the stands for a ground rule double. Bard worked a walk in a 12 pitch at-bat. Bases loaded and nobody out. Gonzalez struck out, Stern struck out, and Cora grounded out.

The Sox wouldn't threaten again until the 7th when they had 2 on and 1 out. But that rally never got past second base.

The Mariners rally came in the 2nd inning. Betencourt led off with a double. Wakefield struck out Ichiro, but Bard let the ball get away. Betencourt advanced to 3rd and Ichiro reached. Ichiro promptly stole second base. Another passed ball allowed Betencourt to score and Ichiro to move to 3rd. Ibanez hit a long shot to right that probably should have been caught but Pena took a strange route to the ball. It bounced into the stands for a ground rule double. Sexson then hit a single to knock in Ibanez.

In the inning, there should have been 1 out with the K of Ichiro. Another out should have been the catch of Ibanez's fly ball. Throw that in with Youkilis's nice catch on a liner and that is 3 outs. The defense just wasn't there for Wakefield.

The Man of the Game goes to Wakefield who went 9, allowed 2 earned runs, and probably shouldn't have allowed any if his defense supported him.

Now for the B*tch-Goat:
Stern: 0.2 - 0 for 5, 3 K, 5 LOB
Cora: 0.2 - 0 for 5, 5 LOB
Youkilis: 0.1 - 0 for 4, 2 LOB
Gonzalez: 0.2 - 0 for 3, 5 LOB
Bard: 0.2 - 1 for 4, 2 Passed Balls
Pena: 0.1 - misplayed fly ball turned into double

Beckett vs. Washburn tomorrow afternoon.

SOX WIN ANOTHER 2-1 GAME

I think Curt Schilling may be the best starting pitcher in the early season. He's the only starter with 3 wins, his ERA is a mere 1.64 and only Roy Oswalt has pitched more innings than him.

Last night was Schilling's best start of the season. He went 8 innings allowing only 1 earned run and striking out 7. He didn't walk anyone and he allowed only 3 hits.

The only Mariners run came off a Richie Sexson double followed by consecutive groundouts that drove him in. In the 6th, the Mariners threatened again. Jeremy Reed hit a leadoff double. He probably should have been erased at 2nd, but Willy Mo took a long time to get rid of the ball. Reed advanced to 3rd on a groundout. Then up stepped probably the best contact hitter in baseball: Ichiro Suzuki.

The Sox were in desperate need of a strikeout with a runner on 3rd, 1 out, and a 2-1 lead. The problem is, Ichiro is hard to strikeout. In fact, in 3,447 career MLB at-bats, Ichiro has been struck out only 321 times. That is 9.3% or a strikeout every 10.7 ABs.

It took 6 pitches, but Schilling sent down Ichiro swinging. Then he got Josie Lopez on a foul tip into Varitek's glove to end the inning and the threat. Schilling retired the side in order in the 7th and 8th, getting his last 9 batters out in a row.

Papelbon came in to close it. He got Roberto Petagine to pop out, then he impressively struck out Ichiro Suzuki. Lopez got a single, but Raul Ibanez grounded out to end the game.



The Red Sox got their 2 runs off Jamie Moyer, who had a typical "how did he pull that one off" start, scattering 8 hits in 6 innings but not yielding too many big hits. On any other night, he probably pitched well enough to win the game. The Sox had ample opportunities against him but couldn't do anything significant until the 4th.

The bottom of the lineup provided the offense again. Mike Lowell singled, Dustin Mohr doubled. After Pena struck out, Alex Gonzalez - who went 3 for 4 - hit a 2 run double to knock in Lowell and Mohr. That was all the offense the Sox needed.

The middle of the lineup was absent from any offensive production last night. Loretta, Ortiz, Ramirez, and Varitek combined for a 1 for 14 performance. Ramirez has still yet to get an extra base hit. We're going to need that middle of the lineup because we're not always going to get 8 inning starts out of our pitchers.

The Man of the Game is obviously Curt Schilling. Curt went 8 throwing 104 pitches, 73 of which were strikes. He struck out 7, allowed only one run, and only 3 hits. He didn't walk anyone.

The Sox send Tim Wakefield to the mound against 1-1 Joel Piniero in just over an hour.

WELLS RETURNS TO DL
With a right knee injury, Wells has been placed on the 15 day DL retroactive to Thursday. He received an injection of lubricant in his knee last night. He will not be able to return until at least April 28th. Jermaine Van Buren, a 25 year old righty with 6 innings of Major League experience with the Cubs has been recalled from AAA Pawtucket to take Wells's roster spot. Van Buren has made 2 relief appearances in Pawtucket this season, pitching 4 scoreless innings.

Wells's spot in the rotation will come up Monday for the Patriots Day game. I doubt the Red Sox will use Papelbon for that game, but they might. They could also use Lenny DiNardo to start it. Another option could be Abe Alvarez who is 1-0 in AAA with a 1.50 ERA in 2 starts. Alvarez's last start was on the 11th of April. Last year Alvarez made 2 relief appearances. He made a spot start in 2004 going 5 innings, allowing 5 runs. But that was 2 years ago.

SHANE HILDABRAND NEEDS TO SHUT UP

The Red Sox are going to be really interesting to watch this season not just because they'll compete for a playoff spot and possibly more, but because they seem to be pissing off every other team they play.

The other night, Shea Hillenbrand took a 3-1 pitch, thought it was ball 4 and started walking down to first base. The umpire called it a strike, Shea returned to the batter's box, and grounded into a double play. Josh Beckett, who was on the mound, barked at Hillenbrand. Actually, it was more like he berated Hillenbrand.

The incident ended with nothing notable happening later. However, Hillenbrand keeps complaining about it. Now, I don't know what Beckett said, and it may have been out of line. Shea is a solid and hard working player and he usually doesn't pull crap to try to sneak on base. Also, at least when he was with us in Boston, his batting eye isn't world renowned. He very well could have misjudged the strike call. But the whole thing should have just ended.

Shea is calling out Beckett through the media, accusing Beckett of actions he "should be embarrassed" about. Whether or not that is true, I don't know. Pitchers and batters have all sorts of confrontations, verbal and nonverbal, physical and nonphysical. This seems to be one of many but Shea is taking it to a whole new level.

The two are bound to face each other again as we have 16 more encounters with the Jays. Beckett will probably be starting in the opener of the 3 game series that begins in a week up in Toronto. It should be interesting, to say the least.

ANOTHER WELLS CAUSES SOX TO LOSE

Once again, the Red Sox equation of no pitching and no hitting (for 7 innings at least) resulted in a loss. The Sox took a 1-0 lead in the 1st, but Clement gave it right back with a 6 run 2nd inning. The big hit was Vernon Wells's Grand Slam. Clement allowed another run in the 5th then Tavarez allowed one in the 6th.

The Sox rallied against Toronto's bullpen. Ortiz hit a 2 run homer in the 8th to make it 8-3. The bottom of the lineup worked some walks and got a few hits to bring the score to 8-6. Then Ortiz came up with 1 on and 2 out against Toronto closer BJ Ryan. The first pitch to Ortiz was a crushable one, but Papi got under it and flew out just shy of the warning track to end the game.

Two really pathetic displays by the Red Sox in two consecutive nights against a team we're going to have to play 16 more times. Not only did Clement suck last night, but almost the entire lineup performaed poorly. The Red Sox struck out 13 times last night. Each battered went down the way of the K at least once. The 6 thru 9 hitters went a combined 1 for 13. The 4 thru 9 hitters combined for 3 for 21.

Youkilis, Loretta, and Ortiz did great, combining for 6 hits in 14 ABs. They had all 3 of our extra basehits and 11 of our 14 total bases. They knocked in every run we scored. Starting with Ramirez, however, there was a considerable drop off in production.

On the bright side, Keith Foulke looked solid going 2 scoreless innings to end the game. He struck out 2 and the only baserunner he allowed was off a walk.

The Man of the Game is Ted Lilly who settled down after the 1st and pitched 7 strong innings allowing just the one run, scattering 6 hits and striking out 10. I don't know why we can't figure him out. He went 3-0 against us last season.

The B*tch-Goat looks like this:
Clement: 0.6 - 4+ IP, 7 ER
Lowell: 0.1 - 0 for 4, 2K, 2 LOB
Mohr: 0.1 - 0 for 3, 2 K, 2 LOB
Pena: 0.1 - 0 for 3, 2 K, 2 LOB
Tavarez: 0.1 - 2 IP, ER

The Red Sox look to rebound tonight against the Seattle Mariners. Curt Schilling faces Jamie Moyer. Curt is looking for win #3 and Jamie is looking for win #1.

WELLS ENDS SOX WINNING STREAK

The Red Sox had won 5 straight because they pitched well. That streaked ended last night because they didn't pitch well. Wells returned to the Red Sox rotation by allowing 10 hits, 3 of which were homeruns. He even walked a guy.

DiNardo and Seanez came in to mop up and didn't do too poorly, but the damage had been done.

The Red Sox were able to hit 3 homeruns, one by Ortiz, one by Dustin Mohr and one by Willy Mo, but they only got 4 runs off those homers. The Sox just didn't have enough baserunners. Youkilis and Loretta combined for an 0 for 10. In total, 5 Red Sox hitters did not get a hit.

The Man of the Game is Alex Rios who went 3 for 4 with a double, homerun, 4 RBI and 2 runs scored.

The B*tch-Goat shall be divided thusly:
Wells: 0.7 - 4 IP, 7 ER, 4 HR allowed
Youkilis: 0.1 - 0 for 5, 3 Ks, 3 LOB
Loretta: 0.1 - 0 for 5
Ramirez: 0.1 - 0 for 3, 2 LOB

The Red Sox face the Jays tomorrow night. Clement goes against Ted Lilly.

SOX AND CRISP AGREE TO EXTENSION
The Red Sox made a statement that Coco Crisp is the center-fielder of the future Wednesday when they agreed to a 3 year, $15.5 million extension with Coco Crisp. The contract includes an option for 2010. I'm glad the Sox are tying up loose ends early by extending deals with Ortiz and Crisp.

RISKE GOES ON 15 DAY DL
Conveniently enough, Riske went on the DL retroactive to the 5th of April with a back strain. Riske is probably on the bottom of the list in the bullpen. Hopefully he can come back and return, but I won't hold my breath in anticipation. I guess it'd be nice to have another option over Seanez, though.

PEDRO BEING PEDRO
Pedro Martinez went 7 strong innings last night in the Mets 3-1 victory over the Nats. Pedro allowed only 1 run and hit no batters. God, I miss him.