White Sox 8 Red Sox 12

Kind of a strange game. The White Sox were up 4-1 going into the bottom of the 3rd inning. There were two outs, and Ortiz hits a slow roller to 1st base. For no reason Contreras decides to charge after the ball. He bobbles it, a run scores, and Ortiz is safe. From that point on nothing went right for the White Sox. Boston ended up scoring 6 runs in that inning, and Contreras was pulled after only 2 2/3 innings.

Buchholz had a bad game. Mabe he just has to be going against an ace to pitch well. Honestly it is starting to feel like that is true. Buchholz was pulled with two outs in the fifth following Paul Konerko's three-run homer that made it 9-7. The good news is that Boston's bullpen was up for the challenge pitching 4 1/3 innings letting up only 1 run (it was off Bard).

With a solid outing from the bullpen the Sox offense continued to pour it on scoring 3 more runs in the 7th inning to put the game out of reach. 1 of those runs was a HR by J.D. Drew, who has been on fire lately.

Since Texas did not play last night Boston now has a 1 1/2 game lead in the Wild Card.

Red Sox 10 Jays 9

If I told you that the Sox would give Beckett a 4-0 lead, you would say the game was over right? Yea, me too, problem was Beckett imploded last night...

The Sox scored 4 runs in the top of the 2nd inning, and it wasn't coming from the guys to expect. Ortiz knocked in 2 runs on a double, then Ellsbury and Gonzalez followed it up with 2 RBIs of their own. Even when Beckett came back on the field it felt like this game was over, even after he let up a HR in the 2nd and 3rd innings, because it wasn't like he was wild, and they were just solo shots. Plus Boston just kept scoring, putting another 3 runs on the board between the 4th and 5th innings courtesy of long balls by Bay and Ortiz.

Yet something was wrong Beckett just kept letting up runs every inning. Francona should have taken him out. I can't deny that, but I also would be just as shocked as him, since Beckett has been able to figure it out all season, and the Sox bullpen has been nothing to write about lately. Beckett ended up letting the Jays score 7 runs off him, and the game was tied 7-7 after 6 innings. At this point I figure there is 0 chance the Sox are going to win this game, but you have to be impressed that they kept battling.

The Sox scored 3 runs in the 8th inning, so the sent Bard in to shut down the Jays. Once again he fucked that up letting 2 runs score on a Marco Scutaro single. With Okajima already used Boston turned to Papelbon for the final 4 outs. It took him 14 pitches to get out of the 8th inning, and a total of 33 to end this game, but in the end he got it done for his 29th save of the season.

With the win the Sox are still 7 games back in the AL East, but since Texas lost last night the Sox are once again tied for the Wild Card spot.

Josh Bard Gets Cut

"Josh Bard's second stint with the Red Sox was even briefer than his first. The Red Sox announced this morning that they have placed the 30-year old catcher on unconditional release waivers, indicating that George Kottaras -- a 25-year-old switch-hitter with power who is out of minor league options -- will make the Opening Day roster, though there remains the possibility the Sox could bring in another backstop via trade (Boston.com)."

Good, I like this kid George Kottaras a lot, and he actually has some decent pop in his bat (22 HRs last year). Bard was going to have to catch Wakefield again, and that didn't go so well the first time, so that was one of my concerns going into the season. Bard hit just .202 in 57 games for the Padres last season, and I really thought the signing was an insurance policy in case someone really did take a shot at Varitek. Still, with how bad catchers are in the AL I would expect someone to jump on Bard very quickly.

Daily Sox Spring Training Update

- The Red Sox Owners did their yearly State of the "Nation" address today. Not really a lot of good stuff here, but they covered everything from A-Rod to Mike Lowell's hurt feelings. All they said about A-Rod is they would like to put steroids behind them and move on. Here is what they said about Mike Lowell...

Lucchino: "We said today, baseball is both a business and a sport. The business part is now behind us, the offseason and negotiations. Now it's time to recognize it's a competitive sport, to join arms. We have a bunch of very experienced players that do understand that distinction and whole are very loyal to the franchise, to their teammates, to the whole organization. We don't anticipate any sort of hangover or carry over (Boston.com)."

- Today is the Red Sox first full team workout. David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, J.D. Drew and Jason Bay all spent time in the batting cages before the team meeting, which precedes their first workout.

- The economy is already showing it's effect as the Red Sox are reporting the smallest crowds they have seen in a long time. We won't really see it affect the Sox at Fenway Park (because of their small park), but I think you'll see even less people when the Sox hit the road.

- Josh was Bard catching the Wake during his bullpen session today. Reports are he looked good doing so, but as we have seen before that means nothing compared to catching him during an actual game.

Josh Bard To Sox

Looking to add a catcher, the Red Sox also agreed to a non-guaranteed major league deal with Josh Bard, the Boston Herald reported. The deal is worth $1.6 million, the newspaper said.

If you remember Josh Bard was involved in one of the most important trades in Red Sox history when he was traded for Red Sox savior Doug Mirabelli. Even if Bard isn't the most prominent answer at catcher he can be just as productive as the aging Vartitek. Hopefully the Sox will eventually do the Buchholz for Salty deal.