ANTI-CLIMACTIC END TO BIG DAY

After acquiring Eric Gagne from the Rangers, the Red Sox opened their short homestand against the Orioles with a disappointing 5-3 loss.

Ortiz hit two homeruns, but that was all the offensive production we were going to get. Beckett went 8 but allowed 9 hits and 5 runs. A good number of those hits were soft little crap-hits, most notably Kevin Millar's little nubber up the middle in the 3rd that scored 2 runs.

The lack of offense lost this game. Bedard's pitched well this season so give him some credit. If you take out David Ortiz's 3 for 4, the Red Sox had 1 hit. One hit! We did manage to work 6 walks, but we left 8 men on base.

There was one major play that may or may not have had an effect on the game's outcome. The Sox loaded the bases in the 4th without the benefit of a hit (2 walks, 1 HBP). After Wily Mo struck out, there were 2 down. Julio Lugo took a 3-2 pitch that looked to be below the knees. He looked at ball 4, but he heard "strike three" from umpire Jim Joyce, and the inning was over.

If the pitch is called correctly as ball 4, the Sox score a run to make it 4-3, and Dustin Pedroia comes up with the bases loaded and 2 outs instead of leading off the bottom of the 5th.

After making the deal for Eric Gagne, and choosing not to overpay for Jermaine Dye, you just knew that there would be a situation that would've been perfect for Dye. You can just feel these moments coming. You can anticipate the overreacting morons at Boston Dirt Dogs getting some stupid headline about Johnny Damon, or Hanley Ramirez ready to go.

In the bottom of the 9th, the Red Sox had a runner on 1st, 1 out, and Eric Hinske at the plate. The Orioles brought in the lefty Walker to face Hinske. The only right handed bat the Sox had on the bench was Mirabelli. It would have been a perfect time to pinch hit Dye for Hinske. But Hinske was able to work a walk and continue the inning. Lugo nearly grounded out into a double play, but the O's weren't able to turn it in time. Pedroia then hit the first pitch he saw for a weak groundout and the game was over.

The Red Sox continue to fail when trailing in the 9th inning. Ninth inning victories are fun to watch, they build a lot of momentum for the team, and they feel like stolen wins.

SCHILLING LOOKS GOOD IN THIRD REHAB START
What would have happened if Schilling had pitched poorly in his rehab start last night? What would have happened had Schilling reinjured his arm? The Zakim Bridge would have collapsed from pedestrian traffic as Sox fans lined up to jump. We would have lost Gabbard AND Schilling on the same day. It would have turned a great day for Boston sports into a horrible day.

Schilling went 7 innings, and threw 77 pitches. 60 of those pitches were for strikes. He allowed 4 hits, and struck out 4. He will be returning to the rotation on either August 5th or 6th, so either against the Mariners or the Angels.

GAGNE DEAL FINAL

Eric has agreed to waive his no-trade clause and join the Red Sox as a set-up pitcher.

WOOOOOOOOOWEEEEEEEEEEEEE

RED SOX TRADE FOR GAGNE

Now, this is different from the Red Sox "getting Gagne." Very different. There are reports that the Red Sox and Rangers have come to an agreement to trade Eric Gagne. Gagne has a limited no-trade clause, which includes the Red Sox as a team he cannot be traded to without his permission.

Gagne has 177 career saves. He has 7 career blown saves. That's 96.2%. This season he's got 16 saves in 17 attempts, with a 2.16 ERA and a 1.050 WHIP. He's had some injury problems the past few years, but he's also been one of the best relievers thus far in the 21st century.

But he has that limited no-trade clause. And the question will be asked "What will his role be with the Red Sox?" Does he become the closer? Does he become a platoon closer with Papelbon? Does he become a set-up pitcher? most likely, he will become the primary right handed set-up option in front of Papelbon. He also becomes the #2 closer on the team, in case Papelbon has worked the previous 2 nights or something.

He also has an incentive clause in his contract for Games Finished. He probably won't be finishing very many games, so the Red Sox might rework that clause and guarantee the money he would have gotten paid had he reached the incentive.

With Mike Timlin's health a big question mark, Manny Delcarmen having a mere 82.1 Major League innings under his belt, and Brendan Donnelley just starting to throw a ball again, we needed some help in the pen.

If this trade goes through, the end of our bullpen looks really strong. We have Papelbon in the 9th. Gagne and Okajima for the 8th and 7th. Delcarmen for the 6th (if necessary), and so on.

But what did we give up? Kason Gabbard, David Murphy (AAA Pawtucket), and a GCL prospect. Giving up Murphy isn't a big loss considering we have Moss and Ellsbury still down in Pawtucket. Gabbard is the big part of the deal for the Sox. Kason was 4-0 in 7 starts with a 3.73 ERA. He pitched well, but it seemed to me as though he was pitching above his head. He may end up being a very good starting pitcher in the Majors, but Gagne is a proven reliever.

I like this deal. I like it a lot. It reminds me of the Dave Roberts acquisition in 2004. We got Roberts to be a 4th outfielder and come off the bench to run, even though he was a starting outfielder and wanted to be a starting outfielder. Gagne will be asked to set-up, even though he is really a closer.

JERMAINE DYE?

The Red Sox have been talking with the White Sox regarding the services of Jermaine Dye. Dye is in his last year of a contract, and the floundering White Sox are attempting to offload him.

The Globe reported earlier today, that someone reported to them, that a deal was close. Then just a few minutes ago, the Globe reported that the deal was not close to being done.

Reportedly, the Red Sox will send Wily Mo Pena, along with either Justin Masterson or Manny Delcarmen for Dye. Right now, the Red Sox are hesitant to ship Masterson or Delcarmen. Delcarmen is our best right handed set-up pitcher as of right now. Masterson is playing in AA Portland after starting the year in A Lancaster. Masterson is one of the top prospects in our organization. He's 4-0 in 4 starts in Portland with a 1.77 ERA in 26 innings.

JD Drew is struggling. He's been inconsistent at the plate, and he has had several tweaks, twinges, and knocks. He hasn't had an extended stay on the DL, but he has missed time here and there due to injury.

Drew has not been nearly as productive as the Sox had hoped he would be. He's hitting .248, has only hit 6 homeruns, is only slugging .375, and has an OBP of .354. He was brought in to hit 5th and be an RBI guy, but he has spent time batting all over the lineup and only has 40 runs batted in this year.

Dye brings some right handed power to the lineup. He can play anywhere in the outfield. He had an amazing 2006 with 44 homers, 120 RBI, a .315 average, a .385 slugging percentage, and a .622 slugging percentage. He won a Silver Slugger and was 5th in MVP voting.

But this season, he's hitting .235 (lower than JD Drew). He's got a .295 OBP (lower than JD Drew). He's slugging .467. He's hit 19 homers and knocked in 52. Now, if he comes to Boston, he might get a bit of an adrenaline rush and start playing better. Then again, he might not.

Dye is a free agent at the end of the season. With Drew tied up for a few more years, as well as Crisp, it will be unlikely that we would resign Dye.

The price Chicago is asking for is too high. These are the two possible deals that are known to be on the table:

Red Sox trade:
OF Wily Mo Pena
RP Manny Delcarmen
***OR***
SP Justin Masterson (AA Portland)

for

OF Jermaine Dye

You look at those deals, and the best part of the deal for the Red Sox is that they get rid of Wily Mo. We either lose a key pitcher in our bullpen, or one of our best prospects. For what? For a guy who will play for us for 2 months, and who is currently hitting .235. It doesn't really seem like a great deal for the Red Sox, and I'm glad that they're balking at it right now.

SOUR ENDING TO ROAD TRIP

The Red Sox ended their road trip with a disappointing 5-2 loss to the Devil Rays. Of course, the Sox were up against Scott Kazmir, who for some reason owns us.

The game was a pitching duel until the 7th, when the 0-0 score was busted open by a trio of Tampa Bay longballs.

We actually got 7 baserunners off of Kazmir (6 singles, 1 double, 1 walk), but were unable to score. A major hindrance to our offensive production were Ortiz and Manny.

Coming into this game, Ortiz was 5 for 29 (.172) against Kazmir, with 9 strikeouts. Manny is 4 for 31 (.129) with 10 strikeouts and an absolutely pathetic .258 slugging percentage. Combined against Kazmir yesterday, they were 0 for 6. Ortiz grounded into 2 rally crushing double plays.

I feel as though either Ortiz or Ramirez should have been given the day off, at least to start the game. Preferably Ortiz. We played a 12 inning game the night before, Ortiz is nursing a bad shoulder AND bad knees, and he cannot hit against Kazmir. Having both Ortiz and Ramirez in the lineup (and in the most pivitol part of our lineup) was devastating to our offensive effort.

Taken as a whole, the road trip was good. We took 3 from Cleveland, which is an accomplishment. We didn't sweep Tampa, but we actually haven't swept a 3 game series in Tampa since 2001.

During yesterday's game, NESN spent a lot of time focusing on the side action at Tropicana field. The mascots, the Devil Girls, and the cartoonish way that Devil Rays games seem to be presented. And then an ad came on for the Red Sox Nation cards, and the whole President of Red Sox Nation BS. Are we much better than the Tampa Bay D-Rays? I'm not so sure.

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT AFTER TWO 1-0 GAMES?

These two good teams finally exploded at the plate, scoring 23 combined runs, and recording 23 combined hits. Every Sox batter but Youkilis had a hit, and every Sox batter reached base. Manny Ramirez and Wily Mo Pena were the stars of the show. Manny went 3 for 4 with 2 homers, a double, 4 RBI, and 4 runs. Pena went 4 for 5 with a homer, 2 doubles, and a single. He scored twice and knocked in 4. His 3 run shot in the 7th appeared not to mean that much with the Sox winning 12-5 at the time, but after Cleveland scored 4 runs in the bottom of the inning, it proved to be huge.

Tavarez made his first relief appearance of the season. He pitched well in the 5th and 6th, but allowed 4 runs in the 7th. They were all unearned as Lugo made a throwing error to begin the inning, and there were 2 outs at the time the runs scored, making all those runs theoretically wiped out if Lugo had made the play. But Julian still gave up a 2 out walk, followed by a single, followed by a homerun. Nevertheless, he gets the win.

Gabbard pitched well for 4 innings. He only allowed 1 hit in the first 13 batters he faced, a Gutierrez solo homerun. He was given a 9-1 lead in the top of the 5th, but everything came undone for him. Maybe it was the long wait in the top of the inning, maybe with the big lead he lost focus, I don't know.

Even though he didn't pitch great, it's nice to have a guy like Tavarez in the pen, who can go a few innings. We're not going to use Papelbon for more than an inning, we'd like to keep Okajima fresh, Timlin isn't someone you want out there for 2 or 3 innings, Snyder is good, but it's definitely a plus for our bullpen to have Julian out there.

Coco Crisp rebounded nicely from what was an overplayed, and overly hyped baserunning mistake the night before. He went 2 for 5 with an RBI and 2 runs scored. It's nice to see he doesn't read and/or care about what's in the papers

So in this series, the Red Sox took 3 of 4 from the Wild Card leading Indians. I'll take that, especially considering Cleveland was 34-15 (.694) at home coming into the series. We also split games with Sabathia and Carmona, which ain't half bad. We've beaten Cleveland 4 times out of 6 this season. And guess who we would play if the post-season started right now...

Cleveland.

In other news, Joel Pineiro accepted an assignment to AAA Pawtucket after clearing waivers. I guess this is good news. Mind as well have the guy available since we're paying him.

Brendan Donnelley began throwing from 90 feet on Wednesday. Terry Francona says that Donnelley is throwing "Not real aggressive...but he's throwing."

Curt Schilling made a rehab start in Toledo for the PawSox. He was very impressive. He went 5 scoreless innings, retiring the first 14 men he faced. He allowed 2 hits, no walks, and struck out 8. He threw 66 pitches, 44 of which were strikes. The stadium radar gun clocked his fastball as high as 93, and it frequently was in the low 90s range. He will make at least one more rehab start at AAA before returning.

It's July 27th tomorrow, and the Red Sox will be making their first appearance at the Fenway Dome in Tampa Bay. Wakefield goes against converted reliever Jason Hammel.

SOX LOSE ONE NIL, LET'S NOT GO CRAZY

In 1-0 losses, you can look at EVERY single play in the game and say "Well if this was a bit different, then we'd win." If any Red Sox batter hit a homerun in any at-bat, the game gets tied and the Sox might win. If Beckett doesn't allow the solo homerun, the game stays at 0-0. If Crisp doesn't slow down a bit rounding third, he might not get thrown out, and the Sox might have tied.

Coco's getting thrown out might have been the play of the game. There were 2 outs, Crisp was on 2nd, and Ortiz hit a soft grounder to the second baseman, who was playing deep in the overshift. He had no chance at throwing Ortiz out at first, so he threw home. With two outs, Coco was off on contact but he seemed to hesitate a bit on his way home. Victor Martinez caught Barfield's perfect throw, blocked the plate, and may or may not have tagged Crisp out. What matters, though, is that Crisp was called out.

The inning was strange from beginning to end. Cora hit a hard liner, but right at third baseman Casey Blake. Hit just a few inches away, and it's at least a single. Crisp hit the ball much more softly, but right up the middle in no man's land, so he reached on an infield single. Pedroia grounded out. Ortiz hit a very weak groundball. Now, he went 1 for 4 with this infield single being his only hit. If he had gotten a true single, into the outfield, Crisp scores easily and Boston Dirt Dogs isn't making him the goat of the century today. Or let's say Barfield hesitates, or his throw is slightly offline, or the umpire calls Crisp safe, then we aren't bitching and moaning about a hesitation.

I'm one of the most critical Red Sox fans there is. But I'm not all that mad at Coco. He screwed up and slowed down a bit. He made a mistake, let's move on. In 162 games, players will make the occasional mistake. We've all seen Coco's outfield play this season. He's a hustler out there. We've all seen him raise his average from below .200 up near .300 this season. He screwed up, let's move on to the next game.

Let's look at the real reasons we lost this game. We had 7 total baserunners. We struck out 8 times. We grounded into a double play. We had 3 runners thrown out on the basepaths. We went 4 for 27 as a team.

And give credit to Fausto Carmona. He threw a gem. Eight innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 walks, struck out 6, had 11 ground ball outs, and 4 fly outs. He beat us, it's that simple. Beckett pitched great as well. His only real mistake was the homerun. He also went 8 innings, also allowing 4 hits. He walked none and struck out 7. It was one of his best starts of the year, but it was also one of Carmona's as well.

Let's not go nuts about this game. It was a 1-0 game, which always leads to the "We could have won it if..." discussions. But let's consider the previous night's 1-0 win. We would have LOST that if...whatever.

Also, this was the first time two AL teams played 1-0 games against each other, back-to-back, since 1975.

ONE NIL

The Red Sox continued their winning streak with a nice 1-0 victory over the Indians. Maybe it's just because I'm a soccer fan, but I love 1-0 wins. They're exciting, nerve-wracking, and very satisfying. But you'd still prefer your team to win games without so much drama. 1-0 win are like dates with Lindsay Lohan, lots of fun but afterwards you say to yourself "Do I really want to go through THAT again?"

Daisuke pitched himself into jams but pitched himself out of them. He allowed 4 hits, walked 3, and hit a batter. He also got some great relief. Okajima threw a perfect 8th, and Papelbon threw a perfect 9th with 2 strikeouts.

It was very weird to see Coco Crisp hitting 5th and JD Drew hitting 8th. Drew's struggles continued as he went 0 for 3 with 3 strikeouts. I do not understand why Mike Lowell doesn't hit 5th. Doesn't it seem to make sense that he hit 5th?

To beat CC Sabathia and the Indians in Cleveland is a great win.

Beckett goes tomorrow night against Fausto Carmona (that's a magician's name if I ever heard one).