Afternoon Red Sox Delight – 3/24

It was a rough Tuesday night for the Boston Red Sox against their cross-town spring training rival the Minnesota Twins.

First, Clay Buchholz thought it was Christmas because he got lit up like the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center in NYC. But more importantly, Dustin Pedroia had to leave the game with a mildly sprained wrist after making a diving play at second.

The good news for Pedroia and the Red Sox is that the sprain doesn’t appear to be too serious and it looks like he’ll be back in the lineup on Friday. Phew…. If Pedroia was seriously hurt, this would have left the Red Sox with a huge hole because their middle infield depth isn’t too strong right now. But for now, they don’t have to worry about Pedroia, they just need to find a backup shortstop.

Buchholz gave up six runs (five earned) on four hits, three walks, a hit batter and three wild pitches in just 1 2/3 innings. He did have two strikeouts. Ramon Ramirez allowed a run on two hits in 1 1/3 innings. Jonathan Papelbon (1 inning, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts) and Hideki Okajima (1 2/3 inning, 1 strikeout) each allowed a hit while Daniel Bard struck out one in 1 1/3 innings. Manny Delcarmen was perfect in his inning of work.

Offensively, the Red Sox had eight hits with Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, Jason Varitek and Brett Harper smashing doubles. Gustavo Molina and Angel Sanchez had the RBIs for the Red Sox.

We are a little behind today but the Red Sox are in Bradenton to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game began at 1:05 p.m. and is available on MLB GameDay Audio. You can also catch it on the MLB At Bat app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Josh Beckett will make the start for the Red Sox and he’ll be followed by RHP Joe Nelson, LHP Brian Shouse, and RHP Fernando Cabrera. Paul Maholm gets the ball for the Pirates and he’ll be followed by RHP D.J. Carrasco, RHP Brendan Donnelly, LHP Brian Burres and RHP Wil Ledezma.

Lineups and links after the jump.


1. Jacoby Ellsbury	LF	1. Akinori Iwamura	2B
2. Mike Cameron	CF	2. Ronny Cedeno	SS
3. Victor Martinez	C	3. Lastings Milledge	LF
4. Mike Lowell	1B	4. Garrett Jones	RF
5. Jeremy Hermida	DH	5. Bobby Crosby	1B
6. Bill Hall	SS	6. Ramon Vazquez	3B
7. Tug Hulett	2B	7. John Raynor	CF
8. Josh Reddick	RF	8. Jason Jarmillo	C
9. Jorge Jimenez	3B	9. Paul Maholm	SS
Josh Beckett	SP	Paul Maholm	SP