Another rough afternoon for the Boston Red Sox at City of Palms Park as they fell 9-5 to Team Puerto Rico who is tuning up for the World Baseball Classic.
Clay Buchholz got the start for the Red Sox and by all accounts had a decent game. He went 2 innings, giving up 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 2. Michael Bowden had a rough outing as he gave up 3 runs on 5 hits in 2 innings of work as did Charle Zink who gave up 4 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks without recording an out. Jonathan Papelbon had an easy afternoon as he pitched a perfect inning and Daniel Bard gave the Red Sox two innings of 1 hit ball to go along with a strikeout of Ivan Rodriguez in the 9th inning.
Offensively for the Red Sox, Chris Carter led the way with a 3-for-3 showing with an RBI. Jacoby Ellsbury added two hits and Brad Wilkerson, who is fighting with Chris Carter for the final spot on the roster, was 1-for-2 with a home run and RBI.
In other WBC exhibition action involving members of the Red Sox 40-man roster, Dustin Pedroia was 1-for-5 with an RBI in Team USA’s 9-6 win over the World Series Champs the Philadelphia Phillies. Kevin Youkilis went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored as well. Jason Bay went 1-for-2 with a walk and RBI in Team Canada’s 6-0 win over the New York Yankees. And last but not least, David Ortiz went 0-for-2 in the Dominican Republic’s 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Red Sox will get back to Grapefruit League action tomorrow afternoon when they will host the Florida Marlins at 1:05 PM at City of Palms Park. Josh Beckett is expected to start and Hideki Okajima and Takashi Saito will pitch in the game as well. There is no television or radio coverage for the game.
Hitting 100 [Extra Bases]
Smoltz, Masterson role together [Extra Bases]
Drew to Play Friday [Extra Bases]
Lowell getting close [Extra Bases]
Red Sox health updates [Full Count]
A few more updates from the Fort [Full Count]
Buchholz a different guy on the mound this spring [Full Count]
Jonathan Papelbon Refines His Slider [Full Count]
Drew talks about injection [Projo Sox Blog]
Smoltz’s return could be sooner [Projo Sox Blog]
Penny throws off flat ground [Projo Sox Blog]
Drew will DH on Friday [Projo Sox Blog]
Lowell had hoped to follow in his dad’s footsteps by playing for Puerto Rico in WBC [Providence Journal]
A world of opportunity [Tony Massarotti]
Francona not ready to name shortstop [redsox.com]
