It was a tough weekend for the Boston Red Sox as yesterday they lost Dustin Pedroia for a few days, lost Julio Lugo for a month and were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the weekend series. Not that it matters at this time of year but the Orioles did sweep the Red Sox in Grapefruit League Action.
It wasn’t the best of outings for Clay Buchholz in yesterday’s 6-2 loss to the Orioles. While he did strike out 6 in 3 2/3 innings, it took him 69 pitches to do so. He ended up allowing one run on 4 hits and 2 walks. Jonathan Papelbon gave up 1 run in his inning of work without allowing a hit or a walk. Hideki Okajima gave up 2 hits and Manny Delcarmen gave up 1 in their inning of work. Ramon Ramirez took the loss giving up a run on a hit (home run). Billy Traber took one for the team, giving up 3 runs in the top of the 9th.
Jason Varitek had the only RBI of the day on a groundout in the 4th inning as he finished up 0-for-3. Gil Velazquez had 2 of the Red Sox 6 hits on the afternoon with Mike Lowell, Angel Chavez, Chris Carter and Jason Bay adding the others.
The Red Sox are back in action this afternoon when they head north up I-75 to take on the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin at 1:05 PM. There is no television coverage of the game and the game can listened to online at MLB.com.
The Red Sox and Jason Bay also broke off contract extension talks due to the economy and the ever-changing market for corner outfielders.
“I don’t think anybody in my situation wants to play for six years and then you earn the right to be a free agent and on some levels sell yourself short, and that doesn’t mean there doesn’t have to be some concessions,” Bay said. “But you put yourself in this position and I think it’s in my best interest to kind of explore. Not to say we’re ever going to go that far, but I definitely want to make sure it’s the right fit.”
Here’s what Red Sox GM Theo Epstein had to say on the matter:
“We’ve had some talks but they weren’t really substantive, but recently we’ve had more substantive talks and it’s become clear because of the unusual marketplace that we’re not going to get anything done in spring training so we’re going to halt talks for now,” Epstein said. “Just table them. But both sides have committed to maintaining dialogue throughout the course of the season. I think there’s desire to get something done on both sides. There’s just a mutual recognition right now that it’s going to be next to impossible to get something done. It really boils down right now to the nature of the market. The market has changed so much from two years ago to this winter, or from a year ago to now and who knows where it’s going to be a year from now. So that unpredictability I think has created a landscape that’s difficult to navigate to get any extension done a year earlier. Both sides wanted it, so we tried. But both sides recognized it’s just too difficult to get it done right now.”
Things weren’t all bad for the Red Sox on Sunday as they made the Jon Lester extension official. The breakdown of the contract looks a little something like this.
- 2009 – $1,000,000
- 2010 – $3,750,000
- 2011 – $5,750,000
- 2012 – $7,625,000
- 2013 – $11,625,000
- 2014 (club option) – $13,000,000
- Buyout – $250,000
There’s also the usual awards clauses and clause to void the option year.
Red Sox in WBC news and links after the jump.
Two members of the Boston Red Sox 40-man roster along with a farmhand were busy yesterday in the World Baseball Classic.
Daisuke Matsuzaka had a great outing for Japan in their 6-0 win over Cuba. Dice-K went 6 innings, giving 5 hits and struck out 8 with no walks allowed. Kevin Youkilis and Team USA ended the dreams of the upstart team from the Netherlands with a 9-3 win. Youk went 0-for-3 with 2 walks, a RBI and one run scored. Sox farmhand Denis Neuman worked an inning, giving up 2 walks. He’ll now head back to Ft. Myers to join his minor league teammates.
Anthony over at the Oriole Post has some pictures of Saturday’s 9-8 loss to the Orioles.
Jon Lester’s Contract Terms [Full Count]
Bay extension talks halted [Extra Bases]
More on Jason Bay talks [Full Count]
Pedroia back, optimistic [Extra Bases]
A Q & A with 2B Dustin Pedroia about his strained ab [Clubhouse Insider]
Sox relieved Pedroia’s oblique not hurt; Lugo’s ’scope on Tuesday [Clubhouse Insider]
Is Pedroia’s injury the WBC’s fault? [Extra Bases]
Red Sox send Mills down to minor league camp [Providence Journal]
When Smoltz looks at Buchholz, he sees himself 20 years ago [Providence Journal]
Lester: New contract allows me to ‘relax’ and ‘go perform’ [Providence Journal]
Market corrections [Boston Globe]
Sox hoping for feel-good story [Boston Globe]
