Jed Lowrie, You Give Me the Business

With the injuries piling up lately, it hasn't been pretty but the Red Sox took care of business (baby) with a 6-5 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in 11 innings yesterday at the Rogers Centre.

Boston (75-55) won two of three in Toronto and has a day off today before playing its final regular season series at Yankee Stadium.

Toronto (67-63) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on Daisuke Matsuzaka and with A.J. Burnett on the mound, the Blue Jays looked poised to take another one from the Red Sox.

It was a true team win as numerous guys on the Red Sox contributed in big ways. Jacoby Ellsbury ran into a wall to make a catch, Jason Bay made a leaping catch at the left field fence to end the 10th, Dustin Pedroia hit a three-run bomb, Jonathan Papelbon threw two scoreless innings, Manny Delcarmen recorded a save and Jed Lowrie put Boston up for good with a homer in the 11th inning.

On a day where Dice-K really needed to give his beleaguered bullpen some innings, he came through. Kinda. Matsuzaka lasted six innings, giving up five runs on eight hits with a walk and eight strikeouts.

Now that Rich Harden is healthy (knock on wood) and racking up wins and double digit strikeout totals for the Cubs, Burnett has officially taken over the title of baseball's most hyped pitcher, who has never put it together for a full season. Believe it or not, for as good as Burnett's stuff is, he's never had more than 12 wins in a season.

He entered yesterday on a hot streak, with a career-high 16 wins to his name but his record didn't change. Burnett went seven innings, allowing five runs on seven hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.

No hitter has killed the Red Sox as much this season as Toronto center fielder Vernon Wells (2 runs, 2 hits, 3 RBIs, walk). He added to his stats with a two-run homer in the first off Dice-K.

Pedroia put the Sox up 3-2 in the third with his 14th homer of the season. Boston's other hitter having a dream season, Kevin Youkilis, increased the lead to 4-2 with an RBI single later in the frame.

Lyle Overbay hit a solo homer in the fourth and the Jays tied it in the sixth on Wells' RBI double. Rod Barajas put Toronto up 5-4 but Matt Stairs was thrown out at home to end the inning.

Coco Crisp hit a solo homer in the seventh to tie it up and then Lowrie hit his first lefthanded homer (and second overall) in the majors, to put Boston up 6-5 in the 11th.

The Red Sox bullpen gets an A yesterday as they combined for five scoreless innings. Justin Masterson (who's settling down nicely in his new role) got four outs before Hideki Okajima (who has quietly turned his season around) got the last two outs of the eighth. Even in a tie game on the road, Papelbon went two innings and Delcarmen managed to nail down the save after walking the leadoff hitter.

The Rays lost in 10 innings yesterday to the White Sox so they're currently 4.5 games up on Boston. The Yankees are five games behind Boston and the Red Sox lead the Wild Card by one game.

Clearly, the three games against the Yankees could prove pivotal as the Sox could put the final nail in the Bombers' coffin by taking at least two games. Nothing is ever that easy though and with Tim Wakefield (fresh off the DL) and Paul Byrd scheduled to start the first two games, it could turn into batting practice quickly.

Next stop for Clay Buchholz: Loserville; Population: Him

A pennant race/push towards the playoffs is no time to have a guy take the ball every fifth day that is a guaranteed loss.

With one more stinkbomb, an 11-6 loss to the Orioles (61-65), Red Sox (73-54) rookie Clay Buchholz earned a trip back to the minors.

For a guy that showed so much promise last year (no-hitter in his second career start) before being shutdown for the playoffs, Buchholz has done very little to impress with the Red Sox this season.

His record fell to 2-9 after 2.1 innings of garbage. He allowed five runs (all earned) on three hits with three walks. Ironically, Boston gave him a 4-0 in the second but that wasn't enough as Buchholz lost his third straight start where his team had a lead while he pitched.

Kevin Youkilis (2 hits, RBI) knocked in Dustin Pedroia with a single in the first. Jed Lowrie later walked with the bases loaded, 2-0 Red Sox as Orioles rookie Chris Waters seemed to have nothing.

Kevin Cash scored on a Waters throwing error in the second and David Ortiz singled home Jacoby Ellsbury to give Boston the ill-fated 4-0 lead.

Lou Montanez began the Oriole comeback in the second with an RBI single and Brian Roberts (2 hits, 2 RBIs, run, walk) drove in two with an RBI single.

By the time Ramon Hernandez hit a three-run homer off David Aardsma in the third, Buchholz was probably packing up his stuff in the clubhouse. Juan Castro put Baltimore up 7-4 with an RBI single later in the inning.

Melvin Mora's three-run bomb in the fourth meant it was over. Jason Bay hit a solo shot in the fifth but Mora added a sacrifice fly in the fifth, pushing it to 11-5 Orioles.

Jacoby Ellsbury doubled home Jeff Bailey in the eighth, a meaningless run.

Boston has an off-day today before beginning a three-game set in Toronto tomorrow night. As the Sox saw last weekend, while the Jays are too flawed and probably a little too far out of the playoff race, their pitching can keep them in any game. The Sox' patchwork rotation and bullpen will need to wake up or else similar results to last night and last weekend will be more and more prevalent.

The Worst 15-2 Pitcher in MLB History

In 2008, Daisuke Matsuzaka defies all logic and reason of baseball. He leads the AL in walks and consistently has trouble getting out of the fifth or sixth inning, yet last night he won another game he probably didn't deserve, improving his record to 15-2 with a 2.77 E.R.A.

Boston (73-53) won 7-2 at Camden Yards as the Orioles (60-65) hot offense was once again shut down by a slew of Boston pitchers.

So how come Dice-K's Cy Young campaign as taken about as seriously as John McCain's presidential campaign? If you've seen more than one or two of his outings, you notice that there's absolutely no flow. He seems to pitch much better when there's runners on base. With the bases loaded this season, hitters are 0-for-14 against him. How is that possible?

Dice-K went five innings but still threw 105 pitches (60 strikes). He gave up two runs (both earned) on six hits with five walks and six strikeouts.

Big ups to the Sox bullpen which pieced together four scoreless innings between three guys. Javier Lopez had a clean sixth, Justin Masterson struck out two in his two innings and Manny Delcarmen (Dice-K junior in terms of putting guys on for fun) gave up two hits but no runs in the ninth.

Orioles starter Daniel Cabrera still can't beat the Red Sox as he dropped to 2-11 lifetime against Boston. Cabrera seems to have slightly harnessed his wildness from years past but he still is nothing special. Going in, a seasoned fan knew this would be a marathon and the teams didn't disappoint, clocking in at three hours and twenty one minutes.

Cabrera (8-8) gave up six runs on nine hits in 4.1 innings. He walked three and struck out two.

The Sox lineup continues to get the job done post-Manny, with Mike Lowell on the DL and J.D. Drew out with a typical fake injury. Most "experts" say that the Red Sox don't have a chance to win the World Series this year without Manny. That's false as even more important than the offense is the health of our pitchers which right now is shaky at best. They're pushing Josh Beckett's next start back because of soreness in his right arm. Yikes.

Leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury had two hits, two runs and two steals (his 39th and 40th of the season, the first Red Sox player since Otis Nixon in '94 to get 40). David Ortiz had two hits, two walks and an RBI. The Kevin Youkilis for MVP talk slowly increases each night as Youk went 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs. Jason Varitek had a double and homer (second night in a row with a home run), proving that he's not quite dead yet at the plate. Must have been the divorce that was holding him down. Uh yeah.

Ortiz singled home Ellsbury in the first and Jason Bay drove in Dustin Pedroia with a sacrifice fly to give Boston a 2-0 lead.

Varitek homered to right in the second and then the Orioles responded with two in the third. Ramon Hernandez drove in Melvin Mora with a single and Luke Scott followed with an RBI single of his own.

Three runs in the fifth by the Sox put it away. Youkilis' two run jack made it 5-2 before Varitek drove in Bay with the RBI double.

Youkilis closed it out with an RBI single in the eighth which scored Ellsbury.

Tonight's series finale is a toss up as Clay Buchholz goes against Orioles rookie Chris Waters, making his fourth major league start. Should be another game determined by the bullpens as I can't see either of these guys lasting long.

Jon Lester pisses excellence

What have I been saying the last few months? Jon Lester is the ace of the 2008 Boston Red Sox. Josh Beckett has the much-deserved reputation and Dice-K has the impressive numbers but if the Sox need one game to win this season, I'll take Lester over those other two.

Once again, Lester righted the Goodship Red Sox with another fine outing last night in Camden Yards against the Orioles.

Boston (72-53) beat Baltimore (60-64), 6-3, and for one night erased memories of the terrible rain-shortened weekend series against the Blue Jays. Sure our bullpen is a mess but if Lester, Beckett and Dice-K can pitch to their capabilities and Papelbon is healthy, we have a good shot to make some noise in October.

Lester improved to 12-4 with seven innings of one-run ball. He allowed four hits, one walk and struck out five.

Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie (10-9) is always a Red Sox killer and he pitched well enough to deserve better. He lasted seven innings, giving up two runs on five hits with five walks and four strikeouts.

Boston's bats were led by Jason Bay and David Ortiz. Bay was 3-for-5 with two homers, four RBIs and a stolen base. Ortiz had two doubles, scored twice and had an RBI.

Bay hit his first homer in the second inning and Jason Varitek followed later in the inning with a solo shot of his own.

Aubrey Huff (who's having a career year) hit a solo home run off Lester in the fourth.

With Ortiz on base, Bay hit his second homer in the eighth, putting the Sox up 4-1.

Manny Delcarmen walked two in the eighth and Jonathan Papelbon had to come on with two outs. Huff greeted Papelbon with a two-run double, cutting the lead to 4-3 Boston.

The Sox increased the lead back to three runs in the ninth as Ortiz doubled home Dustin Pedroia and then he scored on Bay's groundout.

Papelbon recorded a 1-2-3 ninth for his 33rd save of the season.

Fantasy Football Rules My World

I love 'em but women will never understand the innate attraction of fantasy football to the average, straight American male. I was reminded of this fact Sunday night as a group of my hometown buddies and myself had our annual draft for our Yahoo league.

Now that I'm out of college (and therefore my social life has taken a nose dive), I can say without hyperbole that my fantasy football league, highlighted by the draft is one of the best parts of the year for me.

We always do a live draft (instead of online) which can be a logistical nightmare but it more than makes up for it since being in the same room together is so much more fun than holding it online while we all look for porn.

There's so many things to like about the draft: drinking, eating, countless inside jokes about others in the league (and recently kicked out), obscure references to NFL players, the list goes on and on.

The older you get, the less fun you seem to have on a day to day basis, sucks right? Fantasy sports, and football particularly since it's the best, lets guys be guys for a few precious hours. We don't have to hang out with girlfriends, hookers or phone sex operators, wasting time doing things we really don't want to do.

Nope, fantasy football is Mantown, USA. Anything is fair game and you're probably not going to laugh more per minute than you do this one time a year. My fantasy football league with my friends from Beverly is one of the most important things in my life. That sounds sad at first but it's the best to see a bunch of people I've grown up with, that I have so much in common with.

We're not all still living in Beverly: Kev lives in Wakefield, Dave is in Attleboro, Christo is in Framingham (pretending he has a job) and KC is in Wallingford, CT just to name a few. What ties us together is this league.

Something that older generations and a certain sex (broads!) don't get is that playing fantasy football (or any fantasy sport for that matter) cultivates more appreciation for the games. When the New England Patriots are on, that takes up my full attention but having fantasy players all around the league means that virtually no game is meaningless anymore. Bills-Dolphins in December? Sure it's a shitty game but I might have Marshawn Lynch and the guy I'm playing that week might have Ronnie Brown. Suddenly, I care about what otherwise would be pretty worthless games.

To throw a few cliches out there, girls spend enough time with each other watching Sex and the City, shopping and uh getting their hair done? Yeah that's it. The least they can do is let their man have Sunday (and Monday night) to himself. It's not that we don't care about you, it's just that work, bills, life in general is so much of a routine that we need an escape. Hello NFL football.

The beauty of fantasy sports is that hope is always around the corner. You can have a worthless bunch of losers but at least once or twice a season, they'll put it together and you'll knock off one of the better teams in the league.

In summation, girls are great (aside from hating on fantasy sports), fantasy football is the shit and my hometown friends are cooler than yours.

Good luck to all the fantasy teams out there and pray with me that Tony Romo (my top pick) doesn't motorboat Jessica Simpson too much and has some energy for another spectacular season (before choking in the playoffs).

When Reached for Comment, Warren Sapp Punched a Reporter In the Face

If you've paid attention to anything the New England Patriots have done over the last seven years, you can't be surprised by their latest move: signing John Lynch to a one-year, $1.5 million deal.

With the brittle Rodney Harrison and James Sanders each one play away from missing the rest of the season, Lynch is a perfect insurance policy for a Patriots secondary that is thin.

Tank Williams was signed during the off-season and there was talks of him playing a hybrid safety-linebacker role, near the line of scrimmage. He did that for about three plays before an injury in the first preseason game ended his season before it ever really started.

The Lynch move is a low risk, high reward deal. Exactly like picking up Junior Seau two summers ago, the Pats brought in a smart, tough, experienced Pro-Bowler, who still has some fire left, looking for one more ring (or in Seau's case one ring period).

Opposing fans, coaches and players around the league despise the Patriots but in times like this, it seems like they're usually playing checkers while Bill Belichick and VP of Personnel Scott Pioli are playing chess.

Oh Texas Rangers, When Will You Learn?

Due to unforeseen technical difficulties, I couldn't update the ol' blog the last few days and that was a bummer since the Sox' series against the Rangers was something straight out of RBI Baseball for SEGA. It was bat-shit crazy with ridiculous comebacks and a revolving door of ineffective pitchers.

The Sox took game one, 19-17 after being up ten runs in the first inning yet facing a deficit in the eighth inning. David Ortiz hit two three-run homers and Kevin Youkilis was the other star with two homers of his own.

Wednesday, Jon Lester pitched the Sox to an 8-4 win over the Rangers. Once again, Boston had a big lead (8-0) but the Rangers at least made it interesting before falling.

Finally, last night Boston (71-51) shutout the Rangers (61-61), 10-0 behind a typical Dice-K outing.

The Red Sox put up a nine-spot in the second vs. Tommy Hunter. The poor guy gave up nine runs on seven hits, recording only five outs.

Coco Crisp had an RBI single, Alex Cora was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and J.D. Drew had an RBI groundout to make it 3-0. Take a breath, Dustin Pedroia (3 hits, 2 runs, RBI) had an RBI double, Ortiz blasted his third three-run bomb of the series, Jason Bay added an RBI single and Jed Lowrie (3 hits, run, RBI) finished the inning with an RBI double.

The Dice-Man as per usual for his starts, couldn't find the plate and yet the Rangers couldn't score any runs off him. It took 115 pitches to get through seven innings but when all was said and done, Dice-K is 14-2 with a 2.74 ERA. He gave up six hits, five walks and five strikeouts.

Could Dice-K win the Cy Young? Surprisingly yes. Cliff Lee is the frontrunner but since he's on a going-nowhere Indians team, his impressive season could fall apart at any point. Dice-K has seemed like about the 20th best pitcher in baseball this season but you can't argue with the numbers.

Pawtucket's Jeff Bailey was called up before the game and was rewarded with some garbage time action. He had an infield single in the eighth which scored Pedroia.

Manny Delcarmen and Mike Timlin each had scoreless frames to end the game.

Over the three games, the Red Sox suddenly smoking hot offense scored 37 runs off the beyond pathetic Ranger pitchers. Kevin Youkilis, Jed Lowrie (who already has more RBIs than Julio Lugo) and David Ortiz were the stars.

A completely opposite type of team comes to town tonight as the Toronto Blue Jays, they of no hitting and lots o' pitching, arrive for three games. The newest Sox pitcher Paul Byrd goes tonight in his Boston debut against Roy Halladay.